Ryou's holiday
by WinButler
Summary: Ryou and Bakura are going out, but Ryou goes on holiday to Egypt, and, coincidentally, Marik comes to visit his old friend Bakura. Will Bakura be faithful to Ryou, or choose Marik? BxM, SxJminor
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh 

A/N: Fic has Ryou x Bakura and Bakura x Marik. Don't like, don't read.

Ryou's holiday

Chapter one – Ryou's departure

Ryou was running as fast as he could. Sweat was running down his forehead. He was terrified. His legs were about to give out. But he was deadly afraid of dogs, especially big, scary ones, and Goober, the neighbor's alsatian, was scariest of all. He fell down, twisting his ankle. He felt pains in his back and head. Suddenly the dog was on him, ripping him apart, then-

"Aaaah!" Ryou woke up with a start. He was grateful it had all been a dream. Or had it? He was on the floor, not in his bed, and there _was _something on him. But it wasn't a dog, it was just a Man Eater Bug. Wait.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!" Ryou let out a high pitched scream and ran out into the living room, arming himself with a knife. Why was there a Man Eater Bug in his apartment?

"Kura! Kura, get out here!" he screamed. He continued to yell until Bakura stumbled out of the bedroom.

"What is it, Ryou, I need my beauty sleep- oh. I see. Well, come, on, Man Eater Bug, back into your card." Bakura held up the Duel Monsters card, and the Man Eater Bug was gone.

"Bakura!" said Ryou in an uncharacteristic tone. "Why did you release a Man Eater Bug?"

"I didn't." replied Bakura. "I was dreaming. It must have been an accident."

"That's it." Said Ryou firmly. "You may no longer sleep with the Millenium Ring on."

Ah, what? You can't tell me what to do, mortal!"

"Well, if you want me to sleep on the couch……."

"Fine. You won't even be here for the next two weeks."

"No. That's a good point., I'd better start packing!"

"Packing? Ryou, your flight leaves at two in the afternoon. That means you should be there at like twelve. It's a half an hour's drive to the airport."

"So?"

"So, it's five thirty in the morning!"

"Well, I'd better get going then. I don't want to forget anything."

"Ryou, I need to sleep, or I get cranky!"

"You're always cranky, Bakura. You can sleep on the couch."

Bakura sniffed. "Well, it's a step up from the mausoleum floor."

He settled himself on the couch. Sometimes, he despaired at the fact that he lived with Ryou. Ryou was like a girl in many respects. Too sensitive, too nice, too whiny. Sometimes he regretted letting Ryou move into his apartment. He had worked hard, well, stolen hard to be able to afford the place, and Ryou sometimes did kinda cramp his style. He got up at ridiculous hours of the morning, he insisted on a strictly vegetarian diet, which for the raw meat loving tomb robber, was the most difficult thing to live with. Ryou was a very sweet person, and that didn't really go with Bakura's personality. He had gotten his own body a year and a half ago, and Ryou had been living with him for 6 months. He loved him, but sometimes he couldn't help thinking they were better before he moved in. He was surprised Ryou's parents had even agreed to it. After all, Ryou was only 17. And according to his "birth certificate" Bakura was only 18. Bakura eventually went back to sleep, but his dreams were a lot less pleasant than the ones about setting the Man Eater Bug on people had been.

At eight thirty, he was woken by the noises of Ryou pulling his suitcases into the living room.

"Ryou! What the hell do you need three suitcases for, you're only going for two weeks!"

"Three suitcases? That's a joke, right? There's two more in the bedroom still!"

"Ryou!"

"Don't worry, I'll be fine."

"How will you?"

"Well, you'll just have to come with me all the way to luggage check in."

"The hell I will, I've got a job at twelve thirty."

"A job? What kind of job?"

"Uh……….."

"Look, Bakura, we're going to have to talk about this now. While I'm away, there are gonna be some ground rules."

"Ground rules? Do you really think I'll stick to those?"

"Not for a second, but hey, I have to try. Rule Number One. No killing people. Rule Number Two. No tormenting my friends! Rule Number Three. Leave Kaiba alone. Rule Number Four. No wild parties at the mausoleum. Rule Number Five, and what I think is probably the most important. ABSOLUTELY NO STEALING UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES. Got it?"

"I've got it, yeah. But how do you expect me to earn a living?"

"I've left some money in the safe deposit box."

"You're letting me have the combination?"

"I'll be changing it the minute I get back, and I've only put enough for you to survive the two weeks in there. It's 1279. OK?"

"Great."

At twelve thirty, Ryou and Bakura arrived at the airport, Ryou's five suitcases of luggage still in tow. By ten to two, Ryou's flight was boarding.

"Well, this is it. Last time we're gonna see each other for two weeks. You have the address and number of the dig site? And the hotel?"

"Yeah, yeah."

"You've got my cell number, and you know that you can't call me if I'm in the field, which is between eleven and three."

"I can't believe you're even allowed to go on a dig. I thought they didn't let under 18s do it."

"My dad pulled a few strings. I think I'll be OK, but obviously I'll be the least qualified. Anyway, look, I gotta get on the plane, so I'll see you when I get back, OK?"

"OK." Bakura kissed Ryou on the forehead and watched him turn his back and hurry off.

He frowned. "I'll miss you too." he said sarcastically to himself.

END OF CHAPTER ONE

Please review………


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer; I do not own Yu gi oh

Ryou's Holiday, Chapter two

Yugi, Tristan, Joey and Tea were hanging out in the Domino Arcade, waiting for Duke to join them so they could go to the movies.

"Ah, what?"

"Ha, I beat you again! You bite at this game, man!"

"Shut up, Tea."

"Oh, don't be bitter just cos you got beat at Zombie Slaughter 4 by a girl." Tea giggled, and dodged Joey's playful flick.

They had been moseying around Domino for a few hours, pouting at Duke's lack of punctuality. They exited the Arcade, and strolled around the park for several minutes, before Tristan stopped dead in his tracks.

"OK, that's just scary."

"What is it, Tristan?"

"It's Bakura. Sitting on a park bench. _Not _terrorizing the pre schoolers. When did that happen? I mean, come on, what the hell is he doing here?"

"Tristan, don't-"

"What? Come on, lets go over there and give him what for!"

"Tristan, I don't think Bakura is the guy to be picking a fight with, particularly today of all days!"

"What are ya talking about, Yug?"

"You don't remember? Today's the day Ryou left for Egypt on his dig. So maybe Bakura's not in the mood to be given a hard time."

"That was today? Yugi, why didn't you say anything? We could have seen him off!"

"No, he asked me to keep us away, so he could say goodbye to Bakura."

"Jeez, that's not good."

"Oh, come on, guys," said Joey, "Ryou's only gone for two weeks, right? He'll be back before you know it!"

"So what do you say? Shouldn't we at least go over and say hello?" asked Tea.

"Yeah, I think we should," said Yugi with a smile. "I have some news that might brighten up his day."

They cautiously approached the tomb robber, who was dressed in his usual striped shirt, jeans, and black coat. He looked up at them.

"Oh, for the love of Ra, what do you want?"

"We're just here to see how you were doing, that's all?"

" I'm fine, now leave me alone. If you don't mind."

"No, actually, we do. Are you OK? I mean, I know Ryou left today and all."

"I said I was fine."

"Yeah, but you're lying." Said Joey. "What's up? Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"NO!" he shouted. "Well, not really. I just don't think he was very sad to leave, that's all."

"Oh, you know, you'll be fine. He probably just didn't wanna do the big emotional goodbye, that's all. It would have probably been harder for him. You know how Ryou is."

"Yes, I do, and that doesn't sound like him at all! It sounds more like me! He is the sort of person who is completely in touch with his emotions, I'm the one who isn't."

"Look, it's OK, Bakura. Besides, it's not like you'll be lonely. I have some great news."

"What is it?"

"Someone you like is coming to town! A friend of yours."

Bakura looked skeptical. "Who is it?"

Yugi shook his head. "I'm not going to tell you, it's going to be a surprise. But all I'll say is, he's planning on dropping by your place at around seven tonight, and, in his own words, wreaking some havoc."

"Havoc? Well, that sounds OK, I guess."

"Um, I don't mean to pry, but wasn't Ryou planning on giving you some ground rules, or something?"

"All he said was that I couldn't steal, kill, or torment you or Kaiba."

"Well what on Earth are you going to do with yourself then?"

Bakura sighed. "I honestly don't know. Maybe I can have some fun with this visitor of mine."

"Maybe."

END OF CHAPTER TWO

Please review, nice readers!


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Gi Oh

A/N: Please note that when i say Marik i am thinking of the hikari, not the Yami! I am sorry if i have confused anybody!

Ryou's Holiday, chapter three

Bakura entered the empty apartment and sat down on the couch. He flicked on the TV, but had yet to master the remote. It was stuck on some awful music show that Ryou liked. He suddenly missed Ryou, and wished more than anything that he was there. He didn't know how the hell he was going to survive without Ryou. Literally. He hated things about Ryou, but that didn't matter. There were also things he liked. He had a feeling the next couple of weeks were going to bring about some drama, but not in a good way. He didn't feel like going to jail and besides, with no Ryou to bail him out, he'd be someone's bitch by the end of the week. He didn't feel like going to live in Kaiba's dungeons, which he was sure were illegal, but he wasn't exactly a law abiding citizen himself, so there was nothing he could do. But more than anything, he didn't feel like spending the next two weeks getting sympathy from Yugi and his friends. Why Ryou liked them was beyond him. They were whiny, pathetic, needy, and there was nothing more important to them than friendship, which bemused Bakura more than he could say. He hoped his visitor would be someone who could cheer him up a bit. But he had wracked his brains trying to figure out who it might be. He didn't really have any friends, unless you counted his mausoleum trolling buddies. But this couldn't be one of them. Unless it was-

They doorbell rang, pulling Bakura out of his stupor and off the couch. He opened it, and was lost for words. Standing in front of him was a boy of about seventeen, with blond hair, violet eyes, a tan, and who was wearing a white shirt and black pants. He had a wicked grin on his face. It was Marik.

"Marik Ishtar? What the hell are you doing here?"

"I'm here to visit!" replied Marik in his annoying voice. "I'm gonna be here for about two weeks. Ishizu's here for some sort of conference. And she brought me with her!"

"So you thought you'd……come and visit me."

"Why not? We were once best friends, so to speak."

"I suppose so. So, I guess you want to come in? Do you have much luggage?"

"No, not really." Replied Marik. He pulled in one small suitcase.

"Wow. You sure travel light. Wish I could say the same about Ryou."

"Ryou? So the two of you resolved your differences, I suppose? Friends, are you?"

Bakura paused. He didn't know what made him say what he did, but there was something of an impulse. "Yeah. We're friends. I guess. He gets on my nerves, but he's all right."

"Well, I guess that's good, then. So, any new developments since I left Domino?"

"Do you want all the "juicy gossip", as Ryou would say?"

"I guess I do." He sat down on the couch, and Bakura sat down next to him.

"Don't know how much there is to tell. Yugi's friends are still annoying and pathetic, and still all single. Well, except one."

"What about Kaiba?"

Bakura laughed. "With the mutt boy. Oh, makes me laugh. They still practically hate each other. But in a different sort of way now."

Marik winced. "Let's not go into details. I just can't believe it. Ishizu's gonna flip."

"Why's that?"

"Well, I know I said she was here for a conference, but that's not entirely the case."

"Well, tell me!"

"OK, but keep this to yourself. She's here to try and get Kaiba to date her!"

"What?"

"She wouldn't say outright, but I know my sister. She's been in love with him since Battle City, and she's gonna wig out when she finds out he's dating Wheeler."

"Wow. Sounds like you guys are gonna bring some excitement to Domino City."

"I sure hope so. We're gonna mess with Kaiba, right?"

Bakura sighed. "I'm really not meant to. One of Ryou's ground rules."

Marik frowned in confusion.

"Ryou gives you ground rules? I didn't know friends did that. Is he at his house?"

"Uh, no, he's away….went to Egypt, I think. "

"How funny. He's your friend, and so am I, and he went to where I live, and it's like I've come to replace him." Marik laughed.

Bakura frowned. He didn't like this, but even he didn't realize the ominous significance of Marik's words.

END OF CHAPTER THREE


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh 

A/N: This chapter is about Joey and Kaiba, more on Bakura and Marik next chapter.

Chapter four 

_"I love you, I hate you, I can't live around you. I breathe you, I-"_

"Wheeler, I know you love to sing, but really, you sound like a strangled cat." Kaiba interrupted. Joey Wheeler was sitting in one of Seto Kaiba's various studies, listening to a CD and singing along.

"Oh! Kaiba! You know, rich boy, you could knock occasionally." Replied Joey, regaining his composure quickly.

"I know, but what fun would that be?" responded the tall CEO. "Practicing for tomorrow, are you? I sure hope you weren't singing about me there. I don't like to be told I'm hated."

Joey went red. "I like that song."

"Yeah, well. You better not do anything embarrassing at this concert you're dragging me to."

"Do you even know who we're going to see this time?" Joey asked Kaiba.

"Sure. Er….the band you were just listening to?" Kaiba hazarded a guess, but was clearly wrong, by the expression on Joey's face.

"What kind of idiot can't tell the difference between Saliva and Taking Back Sunday?"

"Oh, I don't know, what kind of idiot gets lost in a department store and has to have his boyfriend come and pick him up?" retorted Kaiba.

"Hey, that only happened once!" 

"Twice, actually. You should be more grateful I'm always there to bail you out, mutt boy." Kaiba stalked off, and Joey supposed he was in a mood. Oh well. Kaiba was always in a mood. Joey had leaned to deal with it the best way he knew how - annoying Kaiba by poking him until he gave in and paid him some attention. Or dumped him. And at least then, Joey wouldn't have to deal with his drama for another week.

"Hey, rich boy, I'm going out to meet the guys, you wanna come?" Joey shouted up the stairs.

"Over my dead body." Replied Kaiba. "The next time I voluntarily hang out with your friends will be the day hell freezes over."

"Are you sure?" asked Joey. "You'd get to see Marik again."

"Marik? That psycho who ruined my Battle City tournament? Why the hell would you want to see him again?"

"You're being a bit unfair, Kaiba. It wasn't really his fault, it was his Yami."

"Oh?" Kaiba could tell he was on the way to another argument. "Was it his Yami that tied you and Yugi to an anchor and tried to drown you? Was it his Yami who brainwashed you? Was it his Yami who employed Rare Hunters to steal all your best cards, and pretend to be someone else to gain your trust?" Answer: no."

"Fine." Replied Joey. "You can be mad at him all you like. But you should know, I think he's planning on staying with Bakura, rather than his sister….."

Kaiba picked up on the hint. If Marik Ishtar was staying with the crazed tomb robber, especially while his hikari was in Egypt, it was pretty likely that some of his stuff would be "going missing" over the next few days. Joey walked out of the front door, and as soon as he was gone, Kaiba muttered to Rowland: "Tighten security until further notice."

Meanwhile, at the Domino City Palace Hotel

"Yes, I'll have the, er, spaghetti? That doesn't have meat in it, does it?" asked Ishizu anxiously. She was on the phone to room service at the hotel. "OK. Thank you. I must go, my phone is ringing."

Ishizu hung up and went to get her cell phone. "Hello? Oh, yes. OK. All right, thank you, Mark." She nodded to herself, making a mental note of what her subordinate was telling her. "Yes. No, make sure that exhibit is there. I want the Board of Directors to see it." She was discussing her meeting with the Board of Directors at the Domino Museum, at which a conference was being held. She was to be Director and Head Lecturer for the Antiquities department.

She hung up the phone, satisfied that everything was going to plan for this particular aspect of her visit.

"_And now for the other project." _She thought to herself. She could not bring herself to say it. It wasn't like her at all. It was just such a good opportunity. She had never met a man like Seto Kaiba before, and was at least going to try.

She dialled another number. "Hello? Is that Yugi? Hi. This is Ishizu Ishtar."

The Domino Arcade

Joey Wheeler arrived and met his three friends, Tea, Yugi, and Tristan. They were gathered there, waiting for him to arrive.

"Hey guys. When's Marik getting here?"

"Hopefully soon. I can't wait to beat him at all these games" said Yugi gleefully. He was notoriously bad at anything that involved shooting and a control stick. He wanted someone he could actually beat for a change.

"Well, lets just wait for him, then."

Bakura's apartment

Marik had just left. He was going to meet Yugi and his friends at the arcade. Bakura was glad that it was Marik who had come to visit him, but at the same time, couldn't help feeling bad. Why had he lied? Why had he told Marik that he and Ryou were just friends? He had no desire to explore the inner workings of his twisted mind, so he just put it down to surprise at seeing Marik again. Yes. That's absolutely what it is, he told himself.

END OF CHAPTER FOUR

A/N: I know this is a quick update but be warned they may get less frequent when school starts again. From what I've heard, A Levels are hard...

Please review, everyone!


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh.

A/N: Thank you to everyone who reviewed. I am getting to the good stuff, I swear I am. Just wait a couple more chapters.

Chapter Five

FLASHBACK TO EARLIER THAT DAY

Marik strolled around Bakura's small apartment, taking in everything he could. He thought it was pretty apparent that Bakura had changed since he last saw him. Mind you, so had Marik. When the two of them had met in Battle City, Bakura had been set on getting the millenium items, and Marik had been obsessed with the idea of becoming pharaoh.

"So, Bakura, still trying to get the seven millenium items?" Marik asked, out of pure curiosity. He wanted to know how much his old partner in crime really had changed.

"Yeah. Of course." Replied Bakura. "I mean, it's certainly not quite as easy as it was. Things have-changed since the last time I saw you. What I mean is, ever since Ryou and I have had separate bodies, it's become more difficult. He lets me have the ring, but I don't know how much I can do with it."

"Oh. Well, I suppose you still steal stuff, right?"

"Of course!" snapped Bakura. "What moron would give _me_ a job? I have to pay for this dumpy apartment somehow."

"So…… Perhaps we could go on a little trip? For old times sake. I saw a convenience store with no security cameras on my way over here….."

Bakura considered. Ryou had told him not to steal. After all, he had left more than enough money in the safe.

"I-I really shouldn't. One of Ryou's ground rules."

Marik looked surprised. "I'm sorry? Ryou gives you ground rules? I didn't know friends did that."

"Well, he looks out for me. Tries to make me get by honestly, rather than by stealing. And killing."

Marik nodded. "So….anyway, lets change the subject."

Bakura breathed a mental sigh of relief. Now that he had told the lie, he had to follow through. Not that Marik wouldn't find out somehow. He just prayed that Yugi's moronic friends wouldn't say anything to give it away.

"Give me a tour." Said Marik. "I've only been here an hour, and I haven't seen anything. Show me your bedroom."

Bakura raised his eyebrows, but didn't comment. "All right." He said. "This way."

He led Marik into the room that he and Ryou shared (when Ryou didn't make him sleep on the couch). He thanked Ra that Ryou had taken practically everything he owned with him.

"What's this?" asked Marik curiously, looking at a CD. "Dashboard Con - "

"Gimme that!" snapped Bakura. "That's-that's - "

Marik giggled. "You're an emu."

"I'm sorry, I'm a what?"

Marik rolled his eyes. "It's like a - "

"It's like a farm bird." Bakura finished. "The word you're looking for is emo. And that CD is not mine, it's Ryou's."

"Oh." Marik nodded. "That makes more sense. Wait, actually, no, it makes less sense. Why is one of Ryou's CDs at your place?"

"Because." Said Bakura irritatedly. "I have a way better stereo system than he does. I stole it from Kaiba."

Marik nodded and strolled out of the room. "So, anything else to see?"

"No." said Bakura. "That's the bathroom, nothing to see in there, and that's the kitchen."

OK." Said Marik. "Sorry, Bakura, but I need to go now. I said I'd meet Yugi and his friends at the arcade to catch up. I'm gonna be late." He rushed out the door.

When he had gone, Bakura buried his face in his hands, sat on the couch, and shook his head violently. What was he thinking?

END FLASHBACK 

It was almost seven p.m., and Marik finally arrived at the Domino Arcade, and greeted Yugi and his friends.

"It's good to see you again, Marik. So what have ya been up to?" inquired Joey.

"Oh, not much." He replied. "We've been living in Cairo. I have to say, it's pretty nice to be living on the surface."

"Yeah. So, what have you done since you've been back here? Oooh, and how's Ishizu? I've been dying to see her." Said Tea excitedly.

"Well, Ishizu is-she's-great." Said Marik, trying to hold back the giggles. "And since I've been back, well, basically all I've done is go with Ishizu to the hotel, then go hang out with Bakura. I'm gonna be staying with him for the next two weeks."

"That's great!" said Yugi. "You can keep him company while Ryou's away. I tell you, he was pretty upset, well, upset for him, when Ryou left."

"Yeah, I thought so."

"Isn't it great about those two?" asked Yugi.

Marik nodded. _He must be referring to the fact that they've got their own bodies now. _"Yeah. But you and Yami too, right?"

Yugi blushed. "What's Bakura been telling you? We're just friends."

Marik frowned. _What's he talking about? Have Yugi and Yami not got their own bodies? Or….was that not what he was talking about? But then-_

Marik's train of thought was interrupted by Yugi. "So, Marik, you wanna play some video games?"

Joey laughed at him. "Yeah, Marik, I'm afraid you're gonna get your butt kicked by the worst video game player in all of Domino."

"What?" cried Yugi. "I'm the King of Games!"

"Duel Monsters, maybe. But when it comes to knocking off zombie heads, I have to agree with Joey, you're not that great." Said Tea.

"Fine. Marik, do you wanna play?"

Marik nodded. "Perhaps it'll get my mind off all this weirdness." He muttered to himself.

They approached Zombie Slayer 4, and Yugi excitedly grabbed the controls. The game immediately started shouting things at them, and Marik was quite taken aback. This sort of thing still amused him, the way that motorbikes had the first time he saw one. But this was new to him. He grabbed his controller, expecting to at least be instructed as to how to play the game, but no such luck.

The game started. The screen kept shouting things like "You suck, man!" and "Loser!" at him, which was hardly encouraging. "Low score!" "Hurry up!"

"You know, Marik, I think it's really great that you're OK with Bakura and Ryou. I mean, I know you sort of, maybe, had a little thing for him in Battle City."

Marik wasn't even listening. Yugi shouting at him while he was trying to concentrate was hardly conducive to accomplishing this mission successfully. But that didn't change the fact that he had heard something that interested him.

"And don't you think it's great that Kaiba and Joey worked through their issues? I mean, they still argue all the time, mind you."

Marik kept shooting.

"And I sure hope you and Bakura will join us at the pizza place tomorrow. Kaiba and Joey are going to a concert, and Tea and the pharaoh are "hanging out as friends", so it'll just be us and Tristan."

Marik kept shooting.

"You know, you really are bad at this, Marik."

Marik kept shooting.

"Well, all in all, what with Joey and Kaiba together, and Bakura and Ryou together, we've had some interesting developments since you left."

Marik stopped shooting. "_What!_"

"You lose! You lose! You lose!" shouted the machine.

END OF CHAPTER FIVE

A/N: Didn't know if that last bit was going to work the way I wanted it to. Still don't know. Tell me what you thought, OK?

Can't wait for next one. Marik's gonna mess with Bakura's mind. That will be fun to write. Well, does Bakura not deserve it?


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh.

Ryou's Holiday – Chapter Six

Marik had been wandering around Domino City alone for two hours. He had, though he hated to admit it, been thinking of nothing but what he had found out that night. Bakura and Ryou? He couldn't believe it. He didn't want to believe it. He had always pretended to himself that he didn't have a crush on Bakura, but there was little to no point. Especially since he was no longer evil. He missed Battle City a bit. Not the part after Yami Marik had taken over his body, and he had been sent to the Shadow Realm, but everything before that. It had been fun. Planning the scheme with Bakura, with Odian, pretending to be "Namu". It had been definitely fun. But when he thought about it, Bakura had cared about Ryou, even then. He had always found it suspicious that Bakura had jumped in to save Ryou during his duel against Yugi. He had never fully understood why. There was no danger of Yugi attacking Ryou, after all. But he just wasn't seeing the obvious.

He shrugged. He was Marik. He didn't get deep feelings. And he'd get over this one. Screw whatever it was he felt when he first met Bakura. When they fought against his evil Yami together. Oh well.

He resolved to go back to the apartment, and talk to Bakura. But he wasn't just going to let Bakura off. Oh no. He was going to mess with him until Bakura figured out what he knew. He could be coy, and explore Bakura apartment for more evidence of Ryou living there. The object: to make Bakura as uncomfortable as possible.

He entered the small apartment to find Bakura on the phone, in the middle of a conversation.

"And next time, you can take your damn emo CDs with you-oh. Marik. Didn't see you there." He looked up at Marik. "Look, I gotta go, OK?" he blushed. "Er, sure, you too."

He hung up the phone and looked at Marik. "Damn phone solicitors."

Marik raised his eyebrows. "Phone solicitors, eh? Since when does one talk to phone solicitors about CDs?"

"Since today." Snapped Bakura, his tone warning Marik to drop it.

"Interesting." Commented Marik. He strolled nonchalantly around Bakura's kitchen.

"So how was it with Yugi's creepy little gang? What did they say to you?" asked Bakura, trying to sound casual.

"Nothing. Nothing important, anyhow." Muttered Marik. "Nothing worth mentioning. Just some stuff about what they've got planned for us to do. They're going to force us to go out for pizza at some point."

"Oh, good. I mean, fine." Said Bakura, relieved.

Marik smiled to himself. This was it. "Hey, Kura, do you mind if I have another look around your place? I mean, I didn't really get a good look before. I wanna see if you have any secrets. I mean, if we are going to be living together, I think I ought to know now, wouldn't you agree?" he asked in his most irritatingly coy tone.

What little colour there was in Bakura's pallid cheeks now left them. "Do you, er, have to?"

Marik gleamed. "Yes." He made his way into the bedroom, looking around, poking into closets, anything. He was closely followed by Bakura, looking quite angry.

"Do you mind!"

"Not at all." Replied Marik sweetly. "I'll just have a look in here, shall I?" He opened a chest of drawers to find a book. "Oh! A book! I didn't know you could _read, _Bakura. Or that you'd even want to. What is it? "Chicken Soup for the Soul"? Who knew you had a soul?" Marik put the book down and continued to rummage. This was annoying Bakura, he could see it. This was working.

He proceeded with his meticulous search. He uncovered a journal.

"Bakura! Someone's more sensitive than I thought. A journal? Let's see what it says, hmm?" Marik flipped open the diary and began to read. "The Diary of Ryou Bakura. Ooh, this should be good."

"Give me that!" snapped Bakura, grabbing the diary out of Marik's reach. "_My good Ra, if he keeps finding stuff of Ryou's, he's going to cotton on."_

But then Bakura himself started to "cotton on". He narrowed his eyes at Marik, who was looking underneath his bed.

"Get out of there, you useless tomb keeper!" Marik looked at him with an innocent, puzzled look on his face.

Bakura scowled, and glared at Marik menacingly. "All right, you can drop the act. Who told you?"

Marik dropped his façade and looked at Bakura with equal contempt. "Yugi. But you know, I'd really rather have heard it from you, Bakura. Why did you lie to me? Why did you tell me that you and Ryou were just friends?"

"I don't know!" said Bakura angrily. "I just – didn't want you to think I'd gone soft or anything."

Marik shrugged. "I don't. I never would have. Besides, I can hardly blame you, Bakura. Ryou is pretty hot. Though I'd prefer someone a little less wimpy looking."

Marik wandered off into the living room, leaving Bakura alone in the bedroom to his very confused thoughts.

"But Ryou's just a wimpier looking version of me." He said to himself.

END OF CHAPTER SIX

A/N: Sorry that chapter was short! I promise to make the next one longer, that just seemed like a good place to end. Bakura's now pretty damn confused because he thinks Marik was trying to insinuate that he thought Bakura was hot. Which, of course, he was. The plot thickens next chapter, as our favourite CEO and his puppy go to the TBS concert, leaving the mansion unattended, and Bakura and Marik need something to do…….Reviews are nice!


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh 

A/N: I know I forgot to say what the lyrics were in chapter five (or four, I have forgotten)…it was Always by Saliva. I'd recommend listening to it if you are a fan of Seto x Joey, every time I hear it, it reminds me of them.

Chapter 7

Bakura and Marik were sitting in Bakura's living room, on opposite sides of the room, carefully trying to avoid each other's glances. They had not spoken for several hours. In fact, it was closing in on midnight when Bakura flicked his gaze over to the clock on the wall.

He sighed, and looked at the floor. He had, in fact been staring at the same patch of floor for fifty minutes. He turned over the events of the night in his head. Marik had barely been there one day and already everything was getting screwed up. Damn Marik.

Marik painstakingly avoided Bakura's intense stares. What had he been thinking? Telling Bakura, even in that roundabout way. This was going to be infinitely difficult. How could he stay here two weeks with Bakura knowing? This was not how it was meant to be. He reminisced about Battle City (again). He had felt somehow close to Bakura when the two of them had teamed up against Yami Marik. Sure, it had meant a brief spell in the Shadow Realm, but, in a way, it was worth it. _Look at yourself. _He said to himself. _Feelings. _He supposed it was an unfortunate downer of being good (however mischievous). Damn pharaoh, saving him. And then there was Bakura. Damn Bakura.

_I don't know how much more of this I can take. _Bakura thought to himself. _This sucks._

_Ra damn it, I hate this. _Marik thought to himself. _This sucks._

After another twenty minutes of uncomfortable silence, Marik decided it was time to make conversation.

"Er….Bakura?"

"Yes?" The tomb robber turned his head, secretly grateful to Marik for breaking the silence.

"I was just thinking. We are still going to have a good time, right? I mean, it's not any kind of big deal, right?"

"That I lied to you? No, Marik, of course not, I do a lot worse than lie, believe me."

"I do. And…well, as to that, I think I might have something we can do that might make us forget this ugly incident."

Bakura raised his eyebrows. Marik was looking more mischievous every second. "Oh? I'm intrigued."

Marik grinned. "Kaiba's taking his pet to a concert tomorrow."

"By "pet", I'm going to assume you mean Joey."

"Yeah. But that's not the point, the point is, they're leaving the mansion unattended. Which means……"

Bakura interrupted. "I know what it means. We can rob him blind. Not that I haven't tried before. He's got pretty heavy security."

"Well, between us, I'm sure we can manage it."

Bakura looked reluctant. "I don't know, I think you'd probably just slow me down."

Marik narrowed his eyes. "Well, if that's what you think - "

"I'm kidding, you idiot. So, you wanna do this tomorrow?"

Marik's face spread into a wide grin, and he nodded vigorously. "Yeah! Though, technically, it's today."

Bakura gave Marik a psychotic grin. "Shut up. Look, it's kinda late, if we wanna do this we're gonna need sleep. Agreed?"

Marik nodded, and they both got up.

"Wait." Said Bakura. "You do realize you're sleeping on the couch, right?"

"What? If anyone should sleep on the couch, it's you, I'm the guest!"

Bakura gave him the evils. "Do you want me to send you to the Shadow Realm?"

"I thought that was against Ryou's rules."

"Well, so is stealing from Kaiba, but we're doing that anyway, aren't we?"

Marik grinned wickedly. "We could just both sleep in your bed."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "In your dreams, tomb keeper."

They parted ways, Bakura heading off to his bedroom, and Marik settling himself, however unwillingly, on the couch.

Neither one of them got to sleep anywhere near as quickly as they would have liked. Excitement, in anticipation of tomorrow, that's what it was. Obviously.

The next morning

Bakura awoke at nine am, unusually early for him. He could see that Marik was still asleep on the couch. He wondered if he should make breakfast. Ryou always berated him for being a good cook and yet never having the decency to make him a meal, so maybe he should get in some practice before Ryou returned. He was, after all, really quite a good cook, because he had had to make all his own meals back in the days when he was a tomb robber, and his skills hadn't diminished over the three thousand years he had been trapped in the ring.

He caught a glimpse of himself in the kitchen mirror. Clearly he was the sort of person who needed more than eight hours a night. His pale skin was looking even pastier than usual, and his long white hair was looking ragged and limp. He opened his deep brown eyes as wide as they would go, doing his best Ryou impression. He mentally laughed at himself for being such as girl, and proceeded to start the breakfast.

Marik did not awake until two hours later (Bakura had not bothered to make him anything), and glanced over at Bakura who was sitting watching the TV.

"Hey…..Kura. Is it really morning?"

"Are you kidding, you lazy son of a bitch, it's nearly the afternoon!" Bakura left out the information that he himself almost always slept into the afternoon. Well, it wasn't his fault, it wasn't like there was much to do around here for a tomb robber.

"Oh. So, what are we gonna do all day? I mean, it's not as if there's much to do around here."

Bakura frowned at Marik's use of words. He might as well have said the exact same thing himself.

"I don't know. We could go out, I suppose."

"Yeah! You can give me the grand tour of the city."

"Er, Marik, you know your way around pretty well already."

Marik considered this. "Well, we could always get pizza with Yugi and his friends." He said innocently.

"Oh, Ra, no. Fine, fine, We can go out. Where do you want to go?"

"The fair's in town. I like fairs."

Bakura sighed heavily. "Really?"

"Yeah. Plenty of small children to terrorize."

"You know, Ishtar, I thought you had stopped being evil when the pharaoh banished your Yami."

"There's a difference between evil and bad." Said Marik, with a devilish grin on his face.

"Fine. It's not as if I'm complaining. Besides, small children are always fun to terrorize."

Marik squealed and jumped up. "Yay! Fair! Fair!"

Bakura looked at Marik with contempt. "You know, you're getting to be as much work as Ryou."

Marik stuck his tongue out at Bakura and grabbed his jacket. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

The fair turned out to actually be all right, so Bakura thought. There were, indeed, plenty of small children, as Marik had promised. In Bakura's opinion, the best part was standing in line for ride with the kids, and politely informing them that, on this very ride, ten people had fallen off and died. Having been crushed by the ride. The looks of terror on their faces were priceless. Not that telling them stories about how the ghost train was really haunted with evil spirits that liked eating children's brains wasn't fun too.

When the festivities of inducing several children to tears were over, they made their way to the food court. Marik clearly had a fondness for ice cream, so they purchased a bowl of ice cream each. Marik had strawberry cheesecake, while Bakura had mint choc chip.

They sat outside, near the dock, so they could look out onto the sea. The sun was by this time beginning to set, and even Bakura had to admit it made a nice view, the reflection of the orange sun glistening in the cool blue sea. They sat opposite each other, on a small table where they could set down their ice cream. Bakura picked at his with a spoon, while Marik practically devoured his. After all, he hadn't eaten at all.

All of a sudden, Marik set down his spoon, and began to dip into the ice cream with his finger.

_What the hell is he doing? _Bakura said to himself.

"My spoon snapped." Explained Marik. "It's only plastic, after all."

"Yeah, and you were trying to pick up about a ton of ice cream in one go." Muttered Bakura.

Marik lifted his finger to his mouth and proceeded to suck off the ice cream.

Bakura felt the heat rise to his cheeks. _Damn fucking bloody Marik _were the only words his flustered brain could think of. _What the hell is he doing to me? It's almost as if he's trying…._

"Kura, are you all right?" asked a confused Marik. "You look a bit….hot."

"Er……" Bakura had no idea how to respond to this whatsoever.

END OF CHAPTER 7

A/N: I know that was slightly random place to leave it, but I couldn't think of how to continue. Anyway, next chapter, I promise there will be some good stuff. Promise. Cross my heart and hope to die, and all that. Next chapter is the exciting chapter, so make sure to read!


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: Do not own Yu Gi Oh 

Note to dragonlady222: Thanks for continuing to review the story, I am glad you like it. Just want to apologize if you don't like the way it is going, but I think I'd leave a few people pissed at me if nothing happened between them. I don't like to disappoint anyone, but it would be quite boring if Bakura and Marik didn't do anything at all…..Sorry!

A/N to all readers and reviewers: Thank you everyone! It is nice to know that you all like it so far. Hopefully this will be a good chapter.

Warnings: BakuraxMarik

Chapter eight

It was ten past eight according to Bakura's digital watch (that Ryou taught him how to use). He was hidden in an oak tree outside the Kaiba residence, waiting for an opportune moment to strike. Unfortunately, he had been there for two hours, and such a moment had not as yet arisen. Kaiba had evidently tightened his security for that night, and even though he and Joey had left for their concert an hour and a half ago, Bakura and Marik were still waiting.

Bakura shuddered at the thought of Marik, who was growing to become a severe distraction. Not since he had first started dating Ryou had he had such a strong urge to slap someone senseless. The egyptian hikari had been nothing but irritating ever since they had returned from their trip to the fair earlier that day. Bakura could only assume he was still being punished. As if it wasn't punishment enough to watch Marik eat almost an entire bowl of ice cream by slowly sucking it off his fingers, and then claiming it was too hot and proceeding to remove his shirt. He had got a lot of admiring glances from the females around Domino City, but had chosen to ignore them.

And now? Marik was perched on the end of a branch in the tree, the same branch that Bakura was sitting on, unfortunately for him. Marik was peering through the gates of Kaiba's house, looking out for security guards.

"Would you get back here, Marik?" hissed Bakura. "You'll be seen."

Marik stuck his tongue out. "How can you do this for a living, Kura? Rob Kaiba, I mean. It's so boring."

"Well, normally, it's a little easier. He must have heard _you _were back in town."

Marik grinned. "Is that supposed to be a compliment?"

"Yes." Snapped Bakura. "Now I said get back here. Don't make me come over there."

Marik just grinned slyly. "Come and get me."

Bakura sighed. He really did not want to venture to the thinnest and most dangerous looking end part of the branch, but Marik wasn't leaving him with much choice. If just one security guard saw them, his plan was screwed. He made his way over, and as he did, the branch tipped severely towards the ground.

"Shit." Muttered Bakura. "This is bad." He fell against Marik, who lost his balance, grabbing the tiniest and most useless possible twig for support. Unsurprisingly, the two went crashing to the ground below.

"Ow…." Whined Marik. "That hurt. You weigh more than you look as if you do, Bakura."

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on which way you look at it), Bakura had landed on top of Marik and was planted face down on his chest, listening to Marik moan in pain (he hoped).

"All, right, get up." Snarled Bakura irritably. "This plan of action is not working. We need a new plan."

"Agreed." Nodded Marik.

"Look, maybe we're just approaching this wrong. Perhaps we should be using the fact that there are two of us to our advantage."

Marik frowned. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, one of us should create a distraction for the other one. That way, one of us can snatch whatever we want while the guards are focusing on the other."

"OK. But who's going to be the distraction?

Bakura smiled wickedly. "Isn't that quite obvious? I can't do it, first of all, I'm the thief here, and I won't screw that part up. Second, they, er, already know me. So I can't afford to be seen."

"Fine. What can I do?"

"I don't know, go up to the gate and pretend like you're selling something."

"Selling what?"

Marik looked panicked as a guard approached. "No time, Marik, just go!" Bakura shoved Marik into the path of the oncoming guard, as he snuck behind the tree.

"Who are you?" asked the security guard.

Marik looked around in desperation, but Bakura was nowhere to be found. _I'm going to kill you for this._ He thought to himself.

"Me? I-I'm a salesman. Perhaps you and your other guard friends here would like to see the latest product from my company."

"Oh yes? And what is it that you sell?"

"Well……" struggled Marik, as two more security guards approached him, leaving their posts. Marik swore he saw a flash of white hair dart past, but didn't know for sure.

The other guards approached Marik, and eyed him suspiciously. "All right, kid, what is it you want with Mr Kaiba? Because he's not here."

"Uh….that doesn't matter. Anyone can be interested in our products." Marik stuck his hands in his pockets, desperate to find something he could claim to be selling.

He procured the only item he had with him, which was a spoon. "Ah ha!" he exclaimed as he flourished it.

"Spoons? You're a spoon salesman?" one of the guards asked dubiously.

The idea came to Marik like a flash of lightning. "No! I represent the-the Idea Company. Let me ask you this. Have you ever bought a tub of ice cream, and it came with a really crappy plastic spoon, and when you tried to get a scoop, the spoon breaks?"

The three guards looked at one another, and looked at Marik. "Yes." They said simultaneously. "Yes, I have!"

Bakura was sneaking around the back of the house. He found an entrance on the second floor, and skillfully scaled the wall, popped the window, and dropped inside. Yes. This was going to work.

Marik was staring at the guards in utter disbelief. How had that worked?

Bakura sneaked along the narrow corridor, until he found what he was looking for, Kaiba's bedroom. He knew his way around fairly well, he had been there several times before, on similar visits. His goal this time was to obtain Kaiba's precious trenchcoat. It may not have been worth as much as his laptop or TV, but he knew Kaiba would be pissed as hell when he found it was gone. He found it in Kaiba's closet, along with a box containing several pictures of Joey.

"Perv." He muttered to himself. He grabbed the trenchcoat as quick as he could, and proceeded to leave the room. Ra only knew what mess Marik was getting himself into, after all.

He slowly descended the stairs into the main hall, making sure to look out for guards. But none were there. He saw that the front door was wide open, and that a crowd of what must have been seven or eight guards was around Marik, with more flocking by the second. What the hell had Marik said to them?

He knew he needed to get the hell out of there, but Kaiba's dining room was so near. And his silverware was reputed to be worth an absolute fortune. Bakura threw caution to the wind and entered. As he switched on the light, he saw a table, atop which was a huge display tray, with plenty of silverware and crockery. Bakura grinned. He noticed a silver lighter on the table, so he picked it up and dropped it casually into his pocket. He did the same with a small silver candlestick and candle. He was just reaching for the table, when-

"What the hell are you doing here?" cried a voice from behind him. Mokuba had discovered him. Bakura jumped what must have been about three feet in the air. Which was unfortunate, as his jump took him crashing into the silver tray. Man, that thing made an awfully loud sound.

Bakura took the quickest option - throwing the trenchcoat over Mokuba, and running for it. He rushed out the front door, past Marik and the guards, who had heard the crash and turned their heads in shock.

Marik went red, as the security guards gave him the most evil looks he had ever seen. "Uh…gotta go." He said quickly, dropping the spoon by the guards' feet, and running to catch up with Bakura.

The chase was intense. The stocky security guards ran faster than either Marik or Bakura had anticipated, but they were still in the lead. All Marik could feel was his heart beating and all he could hear was his pacy breathing until he felt his arm being forcefully grabbed and his body pulled into a bush on the side of the road.

He and Bakura peered out from behind their hiding place to see the guards go rushing past, evidently having no idea of where the two had gone.

They turned, and Marik was surprised to see that they were in a graveyard.

Bakura grinned, baring his fang-like teeth. "Excellent. Somewhere else I know my way around."

"Huh?" was all that could be heard from out side.

"Uh oh, they heard you." Said Marik, shaking his head disdainfully. "What now?"

"Run." Said Bakura.

"Where?"

"Mausoleum. Just follow me." Said Bakura.

They took off, arriving at the mausoleum a minute or so later. It was a dark, dank, musty place with practically no light. When the two were sure that they had shaken off the guards, they relaxed and sat down next to a large crypt.

"So, how are we supposed to see anything?" asked Marik.

"Got that covered." Replied Bakura. He procured from his back pocket the candle and lighter. "See? The night wasn't a complete failure." He said in an uncharacteristically optimistic tone, as he lit the candle, propping it by the silver candlestick between himself and Marik.

"Are you kidding?" replied Marik. "It was a disaster! What the hell happened in there?"

"It wasn't my fault. Mokuba found me." Said Bakura sheepishly.

"And you were once the King of Thieves. I ask you, what kind of thief gets his plans screwed up by a twelve-year-old? And to think, you thought _I'd _mess this up."

"Just out of interest, what was it you said to those guards that got them so interested?"

"I – Well, I told them I was from a company that made ice cream that came with a metal spoon instead of a plastic one."

Bakura looked incredulous. "And they bought that?"

"I was using that acting method." Said Marik with a smile. "You know, where you draw on your life experiences, and all that."

"Whatever." Said Bakura, still pouting about the fact that he had screwed up the mission.

The next few minutes were spent in silent reflection, and they exchanged occasional glances in the waning candlelight.

Marik suddenly reached for his shirt, and proceeded to peel it off.

"What are you doing, Marik?"

"What do you think? It's fricking boiling in here. There's no windows, and we're basically sitting right by a fire. I'd have thought a mausoleum would be cold."

"No." said Bakura, swallowing, his pale face beginning to go pink. "It's – it's hot in here."

He buried his face in his hands, thinking about the utter stupidity of what he'd just said.

"Right." Said Marik, raising his eyebrows.

"So….still got those tattoos, then?" asked Bakura, desperately trying to make conversation.

"Sure." Said Marik, turning round. "It's not like they have laser removal places in Egypt."

"Er, cool." Replied Bakura.

Marik looked at him blankly. Man, when Bakura got flustered, he really did get worked up. He obviously wasn't used to being embarrassed.

"Look, Bakura." Marik said, moving closer, inch by inch, to Bakura. "I can see you're a little weirded out. If me being here is too weird for you, that's fine."

Bakura gulped. He could practically feel Marik's hot breath on his neck, he was that close.

"I promise, if you don't feel comfortable with me being in your house, I can go and stay with Ishizu in the hotel. I mean, I know I'm sort of rambling, but clearly, you don't feel good about this whole situation, and I - "

Marik was cut off by another pair of lips pressed tightly against his. What the hell? Bakura was kissing him? Why?

Marik's thoughts became hazier and hazier as the kiss deepened. He finally got something coherent in his head, and pushed Bakura away.

"Bakura, no. We can't. It's not right. You have a boyfriend. Ryou, remember?"

Bakura's cold, dark brown eyes bored into Marik's own violet orbs and suddenly, and doubt of Marik's was dissolved.

He flung his arms around Bakura's neck and proceeded to kiss him again, this time the kiss becoming more passionate and intense. Bakura pushed against Marik's chest, forcing his back to meet with the floor, Bakura pressed on top of him. They remained that way for a pretty long time that night. At least this time they had not just fallen out of a tree.

END OF CHAPTER EIGHT

A/N: Sorry to cut it off there, but I'd rather this fic remained a T. Besides, that line just seemed like a good place to finish up. Plus, this chapter had quite a lot crammed into it compared with the others. Aaaaaaaaanywho, review please!


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh. Or Adam Lazzara or TBS. 

A/N: Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, keep it up!

Chapter 9

It was eight a.m. Yugi had invited Ishizu around to his early the next morning, being that it was the only time she could come. He was completely in the dark as to what she wanted to talk to him about, but he suspected it was something to do with Kaiba.

"Hello, Yugi." She said solemnly as she entered his bedroom.

"Hi, Ishizu."

"Will the pharaoh be joining us?"

"No, he's out."

"Good. I'd rather speak to you alone." She bowed her head.

He raised his eyebrows. "Ishizu, is this about Kaiba?"

She looked shocked. "No! Absolutely not! I mean, well, yes, actually, but not in the way you're thinking."

He grinned. "And what way am I thinking?"

"Oh, Yugi, I'm sorry to have ask you this. But since I was in town on a conference anyway, I thought I may as well. I've never been involved with anyone socially, and I'm not entirely sure what it entails, but - "

"Ishizu, listen to me. I'm sorry to hurt your feelings, and all, but Kaiba is seeing someone."

Ishizu gasped. "He's what? Seeing someone? But-but I never thought he'd do that!"

"Then, why - "

"Oh, I don't know, perhaps I thought I might change his mind about that sort of thing."

Yugi gulped. "Sorry. But someone already has."

She nodded. "So. What's she like? How did she get him to settle into a relationship?"

Yugi couldn't help but giggle. "She didn't. The person Kaiba is going out with is Joey."

Meanwhile, Seto Kaiba was passing the Game Shop, searching for anyone who might know where Bakura was. He had returned to his home to find that Bakura had tried to make another robbery attempt, this time swiping an expensive silver candle stick. He was in an especially bad mood because he had fired seven security guards, and had to hire new ones that afternoon, a process which always got him irritated. Especially when the applicants were young attractive females, who would be more likely to fly to the moon than be an effective security guard, and spent the entire interview flirting with him.

He tilted his head up towards the game shop, when he heard a shriek coming from Yugi Moto's room. It sounded familiar to him, but where he had heard the voice before he could not remember. But she sounded rather anguished.

He continued on in the vain hope of finding Bakura and hitting him so hard it knocked him into next Tuesday, and that sidekick of his as well. But no such luck. He had no idea what Bakura's favourite haunts were, and had no intention of wasting further energy trying to find out. He made his way back to Domino City police station, to reconcile with Joey.

He entered the station to a welcome of "Hey, Mr. Kaiba." From the police force.

"So." Began the officer. "Just sign here, Mr. Kaiba, and he'll be free to go. I'll assume the cheque's not gonna bounce." He said jokingly.

Kaiba did not smile. He hated having to part with any of his hard earned cash, especially when the purpose was frivolous. As far as Kaiba was concerned, Joey could use a night or two more in jail. Perhaps then he would learn what happened when he chose to jump on stage and attempt to lick the lead singer of Taking Back Sunday. And then try to maul him after the show. And try to sneak backstage without a pass. Kaiba hated cleaning up the messes Joey got himself into, but he'd certainly be in trouble if he let Joey sit in jail for another week. Well, he'd certainly never be allowed to use those furry handcuffs again. He signed the cheque without hesitation, and handed it over to the police officer, along with the forms he'd been made to fill out. Joey was released from the jail and walked back to Kaiba's limo like a wounded puppy.

"Well, it's what you deserve, Wheeler. Did you really think you weren't going to get in trouble?"

"Well, I - "

"Have you seen this? "The aforementioned must remain at least 100 yards away from Mr. Lazzara at all times. Infringement of this restraining order will result in a jail term.""

Joey could not help but giggle. "Well, at least it was an interesting night."

Kaiba was not amused. "Yeah, it was a great night. I get to spend two hours in a dank moshpit, followed by four hours at the police station, followed by one hour at home firing security guards."

"Firing security guards?" Joey looked confused.

"That damn thief and his little friend tried to rob me again yesterday. They must have heard from someone that we were going to the concert. Do you have any idea who it might have been that told them, Wheeler?"

Joey went red. "No."

At the mausoleum

It was almost nine o clock when Marik awoke. He appeared to be lying on a cold mausoleum floor. He was still minus his shirt, in fact, he was minus a couple of other items of clothing as well. The candle had flickered out since the previous night, and the door was wide open. _Now _it was cold. He shivered and looked around dazedly for something to wrap around himself, but Bakura was nowhere to be found. His blue shirt was, however, in the corner, gathering dust. Marik pulled it over himself and silently snuck out of the door.

He was met with the sight of Bakura wearing nothing but his blue jeans, standing outside, staring out into the graveyard, smoking. His back was to Marik, and Marik was fairly certain that Bakura was unaware that he was there. Until-

"Morning, Marik."

"Oh. Yeah. Morning, Kura."

Bakura turned around, stubbing out his cigarette. He put his hands on his hips. "So? What is it?"

Marik raised his eyebrows. "Uh, aren't we gonna talk about last night?"

"What is there to talk about? I'm not sorry that it happened. Are you?"

"No." said Marik quickly. "But what about - "

"Let's put it this way, Marik." Said Bakura. "I don't give a fuck about the consequences. I do not want to talk about it."

"So, if we're not gonna talk, then what are we gonna do?"

Bakura suddenly grabbed Marik's wrists and pinned him to the outside wall of the mausoleum. He had a hungry look in his eyes. "What do you think?"

He released Marik, and made his way back into the mausoleum, leaving the door open and leaving Marik left standing outside alone.

"Man." Said Marik to himself. "I didn't realize I was _that _good!"

END OF CHAPTER NINE

A/N: I know there wasn't much Bakura/Marik in that chapter, but we will be back to them next time. The others are just sort of sideline stories. Review please:)


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh

A/N: Thanks to all reviewers!

Chapter ten

It was midnight. Bakura's apartment was silent, apart from the steady clinking of water against the bottom of the sink. Mrs. Mason, his peeping next door neighbour, was skulking suspiciously around his front door, wondering why she had not heard a peep out of him in two days. Normally he was arriving home drunk at all hours of the night, sometimes with Ryou in tow, having bailed him out of jail. But none of that had happened over the past couple of days. Little did she know that he and Marik had been shacked up at the mausoleum for over 48 hours.

It was Wednesday. Bakura was due for a "job interview" as Ryou called it, in nine hours, but had not slept a wink. Not that he was ungrateful. At that particular point in time, he happened to be outside. Lying on the grass next to the mausoleum. Marik was, he considered, probably still asleep. He, however, could not have been more awake. He was thinking about Ryou, nothing new for him then. He knew what he was doing to Ryou was wrong, but he could not help himself. As far as he was concerned, what was done was done, and he could not turn back time. Well, not anymore he couldn't. So he had resolved to stop thinking about it. Overanalyzing things was a small weakness of his. He knew he could just forget about it when Marik left, which was in ten days.

But, unfortunately, he was beginning to think that what he was doing wasn't his only problem. He was starting to consider Marik. He was afraid that while he himself would be able to forget what had happened in ten days time, Marik was starting to feel differently. Bakura was not Kaiba, he was not completely cold inside. He may have been fairly evil, but he was intense. He could read people better than a lot of people gave him credit for. And he was reading something from Marik – something very very not good. Was Marik becoming emotionally attached to Bakura?

Marik lay in the mausoleum, a sheet that was once white covering his body. He knew that Bakura was not there, and that the thief thought that Marik was asleep. The truth was, Marik had been lying awake for a number of hours, trying to sort out his feelings. He was sure he didn't feel anything for the tomb robber other than physical attraction, but he could not be sure. The lesson he was grateful to Yugi for teaching him was not to bottle up his feelings. Otherwise they might come out later in an extremely dangerous way. So, he thought to himself. He would have to confront this now.

What did he feel? He felt something when Bakura looked at him in that hungry way, with almost an animal thirst in his eyes. He felt something in the pit of his stomach when he thought of Bakura. And when he thought about leaving in ten days, and Bakura being with Ryou again, he felt something that he couldn't even describe.

"_Well." _He thought to himself. _"This isn't good."_

Nine hours later

"Hee hee, Bakura, you look so funny." Marik grinned sheepishly at Bakura, who was actually wearing a suit. The two had made the trip back to Bakura's apartment to fetch the things Bakura needed for his interview, which was at an office supply pricing company.

"I cannot believe this. I look so fucking stupid. Ryou's stuff doesn't even fit, he's too skinny."

"Are you kidding yourself?" laughed Marik. "You're just as skinny, perhaps more so. Don't pretend like you're Mr. Awesome Bodybuilder."

This remark earned him a slap around the head from Bakura, who was pouting about Ryou's lack of taste.

"I mean, this is powder blue, for Ra's sake!"

Marik giggled. "That colour suits you, Bakura. It goes with your eyes."

"My eyes are brown!"

"OK, OK, let's calm down. You're late for this interview as it is. Oh, and just out of curiosity, Bakura…"

"Ryou thinks I ought to have a job." Bakura finished. "He says it would be good for me to have my own income. He set up this interview."

"Oh. And you're going because….."

"Because if I don't, Ryou will somehow find out. And punish me." Bakura sulked. He hated not being in control. He was normally very dominant, but with Ryou it just wasn't an option. Ryou held certain cards that Bakura couldn't take (unless he wanted to go to jail). So he just got on with what Ryou said most of the time. The rewards of defying him sometimes just didn't seem worth the costs. Plus, whenever Bakura landed himself in jail, or in a ditch, or trapped in a car that he had driven off a bridge, or on the floor of the bar, Ryou got this sad puppy dog look on his face that Bakura couldn't resist. He knew just how Seto Kaiba felt sometimes. He was the only person that understood why Kaiba put up with Joey.

"So are you happy now?" snapped Bakura. "Call me whipped if you like. But I'm still on top." He said flatly. "In more ways than one."

Marik ushered Bakura out of the apartment, knowing he was already five minutes late for the interview. They sped along the road, knocking a number of old people off their bikes (and laughing about it). They managed to arrive at Boaring and Layme Office Supplies at quarter past nine.

"Quick, Bakura, go!" Marik shoved Bakura into the building, where Bakura was met by a short skinny blonde woman of around twenty-five years of age. She smiled, baring all of her white teeth.

"Hello, sir! How may I help you? Are you the man from the Oakham store? Because like I told your supervisor over the phone, we can't ship until Monday!" she gleamed.

"What? No, you stupid woman, I'm here for an interview. Mr. Boaring is expecting me."

She widened her eyes, making herself look even more vacuous. "Oooh! You're Mr. Bakura. Mr. B isn't in today, you'll be in conference room C with Mr. Hargreaves and Miss Rossiter. It's the third door on the left. Have fun!" She pointed him in the direction of the room he was to have the interview in. On his way, he got out a notepad and pen, and wrote himself a note.

"_Note to self: Once job has been acquired, first victim shall be blonde creature from ground floor. That is all."_

He opened the door without bothering to knock.

"Ah! You must be Mr. Bakura. We were beginning to worry you weren't going to come." Said the woman he assumed must be Miss Rossiter. She was a formidable looking thirty something woman with jet black hair tied back in a bun, and ivory skin. She wore a frown on her face, and was met with a glare from Bakura. The man sitting next to her was a man in his forties, with an easy smile on his face.

"Sit, sit, Mr. Bakura." He said. "I've heard about you from your brother. Apparently you have quite the affinity for office supplies."

"Brother?" asked Bakura, bemused. "Oh! Ryou. Yes, of course. Him."

"So, it looks like you have quite an impressive resume, Mr. Bakura. Two years at business school, and a year and a half working for Hegarty and co.'s law firm. And so young!"

"Huh?" asked Bakura, clearly in the dark. "Uh, I mean, sure. Yeah, that was fun."

"So let me ask you something. Why apply for a job in the pricing division of an office supply company? I mean, to be honest with you, initially all you'll be doing is writing down the prices of the supplies and sticking them on the boxes. That's rather a step down from working at a law firm."

"Well." Said Bakura, preparing for a lie that he did not know he was going to have to tell, but hey, he was a professional thief, he could make anything up on the spot. "I was fired from the company for unprofessional behaviour."

"Oh." Mr. Hargreaves' face fell. Clearly he thought he was on to something good. But he did not know Bakura. "What was it, if you don't mind my asking?"

"Sexual harassment in the workplace." Bakura replied with totally straight face. He might as well make this interview worth his while by getting a laugh out of it. Because if Ryou thought he was going to spend his time pricing office supplies, he had another think coming.

Mr. Hargreaves and Miss Rossiter stared in total disbelief. "Ah…sexual harassment? It doesn't say that here. And I believe it's required by law. You ought to know."

"Well, I almost never bothered to do any work. Why should I?"

"Because you got paid."

"Paid? No, no, the work was voluntary. It was a pro bono law firm. Free of charge."

They smiled again. "Well, how good of you."

"So, I just snuck into the firm after hours to steal money from the vault."

"Oh. Well, let's change the subject. Tell us about why you would like to work here. I'd love to know how you feel office supplies are personal to you."

"What?"

"Well that's what Ryou told me over the phone…."

"OK. I feel that office supplies are personal to me because they are often good instruments to hurt or kill people with. Have you ever stapled someone's ear to their head, Mr. Hargreaves? It's most entertaining."

"Um…no, no, I haven't."

"And you know how much fun you can have with a staple remover, too. I'll pierce that blonde receptionist's tongue for her."

"Um, well, I don't think - "

"And superglue. That can be a little bit of fun, as well."

"Um, let's - "

"Oh, and have you ever tried using a mini paper guillotine to cut someone's hair? Because that's one I haven't had a go at yet, and I'd appreciate it if the company would fund the project." Bakura said, still not allowing a smile to creep on to his face.

Bakura walked out of the office of Boaring and Layme Office Supplies ten minutes later, to be greeted by Marik.

"So?" asked Marik. "How did it go? Do you think you're gonna get it?"

Bakura looked at Marik dead in the eyes.

"Oh yeah. I got it all right."

Half an hour later, Marik and Bakura were at the pier. They had been walking together since Bakura had left his disastrous interview. Which he had told Marik the truth about.

"I can't believe you said that you thought a photocopier dispensed pornography."

"Hey, they're lucky I knew what half the things he said were. I mean, I'm a three thousand-year-old tomb robber, how the hell should I know what a three hole punch is? I only knew about the staple remover because I used it to torture a witness in the thieving of my laptop."

"Uh, your laptop? Don't you mean Kaiba's laptop that you stole, and that he probably just took back?"

Bakura grinned wickedly. "OK, I knew it was Kaiba, I just wanted an excuse to torture the witness."

"Who was…."

"Tea." Bakura laughed.

"Hey." Said Marik, as they reached a particular point. "Do you remember when we came here for ice cream, Kura?"

"Do I remember? It was two days ago, my memory isn't that bad! Well, it's better than the pharaoh's."

"I had strawberry cheesecake."

"Yeah, and that plastic spoon broke."

Marik smiled. "It was that spoon that gave me the inspiration for the Idea Company. That manufacture metal spoons for mini ice cream cups."

Bakura raised his eyebrows.

"Hey, if it wasn't for that, you wouldn't even have got that candlestick!"

"And if I hadn't had that candle stick, we wouldn't have….you know."

"Yeah, you're right!" agreed Marik.

"_God bless all plastic spoons." _Marik thought to himself.

"_God damn all plastic spoons." _Bakura thought to himself.

END OF CHAPTER TEN

A/n: random, random, random. Ah, well! Till next time! Bye bye, and don't forget to review!


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Gi Oh

A/N: Thanks to all reviewers!

Warnings: Don't forget, shounen ai, so if you don't like, don't say I didn't warn you.

Chapter eleven

It was around half past three in the morning. Marik and Bakura had, on Thursday, made the wise decision to return to Bakura's marginally cozier apartment. After all, the mausoleum was too cold most of the time, and too hot the rest. And Marik had discovered that Bakura had an undisclosed fear of spiders. And while teasing him about that had been fun, he, too, was finding life in a dank crypt getting to be a little tedious.

So they had come back. It was early Friday morning, and they had both been completely wiped from the previous day, when they had returned to the funfair. Bakura described his experiences on the rollercoaster as "anything but fun" while Marik had enjoyed seeing his face pale at the thought of three loops.

"But how does it work?" asked a puzzled Bakura.

"It's better not to ask", replied Marik. "Otherwise you won't want to go on anymore."

"I don't want to go on in the first place!" Bakura had hissed, before being dragged on to the ride by Marik.

But that was Thursday. And now, in the early hours of Friday morning, Marik was finding himself behind the door inside Bakura's bedroom, listening closely to the conversation he was having with Ryou in the living room. Of course, with the time difference, the only time it was convenient for Ryou to talk was the stupid hours of the night.

"No. Don't come back early. It's fine." Bakura was saying. "Look, Ryou, uh, I need to go. Don't call again, OK? I mean, you know, because it makes me, uh, miss you. Yes, that's right. Miss you." Bakura lied through his teeth. _More like it makes me feel guilty._

"All right. See you next Saturday. You too." Bakura hung up the phone and made his way back in to the bedroom. Marik, wanting to make sure Bakura did not know he had been listening in, climbed back in to bed and dived under the sheets.

Bakura clambered into bed next to Marik, who was pretending to be asleep. But he could not contain his giggles when Bakura wrapped his hand around Marik's waist, and started kissing the back of his neck.

"Ah! Bakura, I'm ticklish! Get off!"

"Oh, all right then." Said Bakura teasingly, and withdrew, turning away from Marik.

"Well." Conceded Marik. "You didn't have to stop completely." He turned to face Bakura and pouted. "I mean, if you wanted to, then that's - "

He was cut off by Bakura gently pressing his lips against his own, and decided not to bother arguing this time.

The next morning, Marik and Bakura were even more tired. Marik arose from Bakura's bed at around midday, and strode into the kitchen to find the tomb robber had made breakfast. For himself.

"Oh, thanks for making me some, Kura." He said sarcastically.

"What? I figured you wouldn't want what I'm having. It's bacon."

"So?"

"You're a vegetarian, Marik."

"Oh, yeah. Whoops, I forgot. It's not really my doing, Ishizu makes me."

"Ah yes, the almighty power a sister wields over her homicidal, power-mongering brother."

"Shut up."

"Make me."

Marik did.

A little later, Marik and Bakura decided to take a trip to the mall, in order to learn about what Bakura termed "fashion and crap". According to Ryou, Bakura's fashion sense was not what he would call good, and had asked him to try better. Since Bakura basically wore the same as Ryou, he had no idea where this had come from, but, hey, it meant a chance to scare scrawny salesgirls. Who would miss that opportunity?

After having been thrown out of several stores for:

Making out in the girls clothing section

Stabbing a teddy bear to death in toys

Dressing up in vampire suits and scaring the bejeezus out of kids, and

Starting a food fight in the food court,

They decided the mall perhaps wasn't the place for them. Especially since they had spied the "geek squad" as Kaiba so thoughtfully called them roaming in the duel monsters shop. Yugi and his friends were the last people Bakura wanted to see, he had, after all, been having fun. Why would he want to ruin it now?

So he and Marik took the opportunity of an empty stationary store to start having even more fun. But unbeknownst to them, as Marik was removing Bakura's shirt expertly, Yugi Moto was scanning the shelves of that very stationary store looking for a new pink ruler. His previous one had been stolen by Kaiba and Joey, and he had, wisely, never asked for it back.

He turned the corner of the store to see a sight he had never hoped to see. He restrained himself from gasping, he didn't want Bakura and Marik to notice him there. But this was unbelievable. Bakura and Marik? Yugi silently shook his head, he refused to believe that Bakura would cheat on Ryou, he loved him too much. And now he was sleeping with Marik? And – in the middle of a shop? Had they no control?

Yugi slipped out. He resolved to talk to Bakura about this later, but he had to get back to his friends. They were all going to meet Marik at the arcade later that evening, but Bakura had refused to come. Yugi grinned to himself. He felt a plan begin to formulate in his head.

Yugi watched Bakura's apartment and waited in the shadows outside for Marik to leave. He was going to be meeting with Yugi and his friends in just over ten minutes. When the blond tomb keeper had finally exited the building, Yugi made his move. All he wanted was to make sure that Bakura couldn't tell Marik that Yugi knew before Yugi himself got to Marik.

He knocked on the door. Bakura opened it, clearly expecting to see Marik, but instead was met with Yugi's innocent face.

"What do you want?" he snapped.

"Can I come in?" asked Yugi, batting his eyelashes at Bakura.

"All right." Said Bakura, giving Yugi a shifty look. "Why?"

Yugi sat down on the couch and looked pointedly at Bakura. "Because I want to know why you're having sex with Marik."

Bakura's eyes widened, and Yugi thought he saw him twitch slightly, but he managed to regain his composure quickly.

"That's none of your business. Besides, how did you find out?"

"I saw you two in that store today. The stationary supply one?"

Bakura shook his head. "Those three hole punches, they really aren't my friend, are they?"

Yugi raised his eyebrows, not even going to pretend to understand. "Look, that's not the point. Ra knows I don't need to be getting involved in someone else's relationship, Ishizu and Kaiba are complicated enough, but I just want to know why you're doing this to someone I thought you loved."

"Who ever said I loved Ryou?" snapped Bakura harshly. "Have you ever heard me say that to him?"

Yugi looked stunned. "Admittedly, no. But we all assumed - "

"Well, don't assume." Said Bakura coldly. "Look, Yugi, you need to leave now. Before I send you to the Shadow Realm for good."

"Fine." Said Yugi, as he made his way to the door. "But just so you know, if you don't tell Ryou, someone else might." He swung the door behind him. "Oh, and by the way, I'm off to meet Marik now." He slammed the door behind him.

"Rats!" cried Bakura. "Oh well, what's the worst that could happen?"

At the arcade

Yugi arrived ten minutes late. He rushed over to where Tea, Tristan, Joey, and Marik were standing.

"I'm sorry, you guys, but I got distracted on the way. There was, er, some lady in trouble, and I had to stop to help." This excuse could not have been more clearly fabricated (Yugi was hardly as skilled a liar as Bakura), but the others appeared to let it slide.

"That's all right, Yug'." Said Joey. "So what's up? You ready to be wiped out on Deathstar 2 or what?"

Yugi grinned. "That's all right, Joey. I'll let you get your butt kicked by Tea. I think I'll go get us some drinks. Marik, you wanna come with me?" he asked.

Marik looked surprised, but nodded. "OK."

Marik and Yugi walked over to the bar and sat down. Yugi asked for five orange juices, at which Marik pouted, but agreed to. They began to talk.

"So, Marik, I feel like we hardly talk. I mean, you do spend a lot of time with Bakura."

"Uh, yeah. Well, he's…nice. When he wants to be, I guess."

Yugi nodded. "So, how are things, anyway? I mean, I wanna know everything. Is there any cute girl you like right now?" he winked.

Marik frowned in disbelief. "What are you, a girl?"

Yugi grimaced. "No, but I'm just interested."

"Well, I suppose there is someone."

"And do you really like them?"

Marik looked wistful. "Yeah. I do. To tell you the truth, Yugi, I think I've fallen in love with them."

Yugi could barely control himself from screaming out, but managed to restrain himself. "Oh really? Is it is anyone I know?" he said throatily.

"No, no. It's someone back in Egypt."

"Oh right. Well, I'd like to meet them sometime."

"Sure. Maybe sometime."

Yugi nodded. Love. This certainly made things more complicated.

It was eleven o clock when Yugi and his friends parted ways with Marik, who made his way back to Bakura's apartment. He couldn't believe he told Yugi that he was in love. Of course, Yugi couldn't possibly know it was Bakura he was talking about, but still. Having admitted it to Yugi, he now had no choice but to admit it to himself. The past few days, he had felt like he was taking crazy pills. Bakura had most certainly screwed with his brain. How much, he wasn't sure. He contemplated this until he reentered the apartment.

He was met with an extremely pissed off Bakura. "Marik. You won't believe this." Bakura grabbed Marik and shoved him on to the couch. "Yugi didn't tell you, did he?"

Marik looked puzzled. "Tell me what?"

Bakura sighed. "Yugi knows about us. He knows. He saw us in that store earlier today. And he came over to talk to me about it. By this time, you had already left."

Marik didn't care. His mind had gone blank the instant Bakura had said it.

**Yugi knows about us. He knows. YUGI. KNOWS. **

Marik's mind could not think past one four letter word.

**Fuck!**

This certainly wasn't good.

END OF CHAPTER ELEVEN

A/N: thanks for reading that rather insane chapter. It was slightly odd and confusing, but hey. So, shall Yugi tell Bakura that Marik loves him? Oh, good fun. Poor Marik. Reviews please!


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Gi Oh.

A/N: Thanks to reviewers, keep reviewing, people!

Ryou's Holiday, chapter twelve

It was a great day. The sun was in the sky, the birds were singing, and it was Saturday, AKA, one week until Marik leaves and Ryou comes back. But however pleasant the day in itself was, there was only one thing running through Marik's head and it could hardly be described as pleasant.

He ran as far and as fast as he could to Yugi's grandfather's game shop, and was met with the old man himself, not exactly the person he's been hoping to see.

"Ah, good morning, Marik. It's such a nice day, isn't it? Are you here to see Yugi?"

"Yes." Said Marik in a tone that he hoped said, "so get him quickly, old man."

Mr. Moto went to fetch Yugi, leaving Marik once again, to his rather unpleasant thoughts about what he would like to do to Yugi if he ever told.

"Marik!" said Yugi happily, upon seeing his former enemy at the bottom of the stairs. "What's up?"

"You know what's up, you little….rrrr!" Marik lunged for Yugi, but Yugi was faster, and dodged behind the cash desk, leaving Marik to smack into the wall.

"No. Really. Why are you here?" asked Yugi with a grin on his face.

"I swear, Moto, if you tell Bakura what I told you yesterday, er, by accident, I will bring back Yami Marik and have him go psycho on your ass."

Yugi nodded condescendingly. "Yeah. That'll happen. You're so airy-fairy now you couldn't hurt a fly."

"Rrrrrr!" Marik once again attempted to grab Yugi, but once again missed. "Look. Just….Please. Do not say anything to Bakura. He will totally ruin the time we have left. Which isn't even that long."

"Look, Marik." Said Yugi. "I'll level with you. I have absolutely no desire to be involved in yet another person's relationship problems, but I can't help myself."

"What?"

"Oh, never mind. Your sister has enlisted my help to break up Kaiba and Joey."

Marik laughed violently. "You're kidding! Only Ishizu could think o something that stupid!"

"Marik, listen to me."

"No. I don't need your advice, Yugi. I just need to promise me you will not say anything to Bakura."

Yugi nodded. "Fine. I won't say anything to Bakura. On one condition."

"What?"

"You're going to tell him yourself."

Marik fumed, and stormed out of the game shop before Yugi had the chance to say anything else. Yugi was left standing alone in the game shop, thinking to himself. Why did relationships have to be so complicated?

--------------------------------

Later that day, Marik visited his sister at her hotel. He had barely even talked to her since he had been back, and he felt it was time he said hello. He made his way up, and knocked on the door, waiting for her to answer.

"Marik?" she asked as she opened the door. "What on earth are you doing here? Shouldn't you be out causing trouble with Bakura?"

Marik shook his head. "I'm sure Bakura's causing enough trouble for the both of us."

"So why are you here?"

"I'm not sure. It's just that we haven't really made any arrangements for how we're getting back. I mean, are we going on the ferry?"

"Uh huh. I've already booked our tickets. We leave on Saturday, OK?"

Marik nodded. "Sure. So, uh, how goes it with Kaiba, sis?"

She blanched. "How do you know about that?"

"Because you're completely transparent. Oh, and Yugi said so."

"I'm going to kill him." She snarled.

"Wait in line, sis." He retorted.

"Why, what's he done?"

"Oh, nothing. Just what he always does. Makes me think about things. Makes me do the god damn right thing."

She grinned. "A little doing the right thing now and again wouldn't hurt, Marik."

"It's not about that. It's just that he's guilted me into telling someone something that I really don't want them to know."

"Care to elaborate?"

For a moment, Marik considered telling Ishizu about Bakura. But the thought only crossed his mind for a second. "No. Not really. Just that I don't really know what to do about this."

"If you tell me the problem - "

"I'm not telling you."

"Fine. So, any other reason for dropping by? Other than to torment me about Kaiba and give me cryptic riddles about what Yugi said?"

"No. I guess….I'll go." Marik made his way to the door.

"Bye, Marik." Said Ishizu absentmindedly.

Marik was almost at the door when an overmastering impulse drove him to turn back around. "Ishizu." He said.

"Yes?" she sighed.

"If you had the chance to tell Kaiba how you felt, before it was too late, would you?"

"What?"

"If there was any chance, any chance at all that he might want you too, would you go for it? Would you tell him how you felt?"

She blushed. "Well, Marik, I really can't say. I suppose, if there was some chance that - "

"Thanks Ishizu." He cut her off and ran out of the door.

"That was strange." She muttered to herself.

---------------------------------------------

That night Bakura and Marik had decided to stay in. There was a documentary on that Marik wanted to watch, something to do with motorcycles, and Bakura had decided that he was going to sit in his room and listen to death metal as loud as he could stand it just to annoy Marik while he was watching. He was still pissed that Marik would not teach him how to work the remote control. It was not fair. He was just like Ryou, who had taught Bakura to work all of the things that would be an advantage to Ryou, such as the oven, so Bakura could cook for Ryou, and the car, so he could drive Ryou places. But the remote? No. So Bakura was pouting in his room, something Marik had become all too familiar with.

Marik grinned and turned up the volume. If Bakura wanted a war, he'd get one. Bakura responded by inanely turning up his music. This continued for a good five minutes, until Bakura sullenly resigned and turned off the death metal.

He strutted out into the living room and made evil eyes at Marik. Marik winced, since Bakura's evil eyes were actually fairly scary. But When Bakura sat next to him on the couch and pulled him into an intense kiss, Marik knew Bakura didn't really mean it.

Bakura grinned at Marik, who was looking dazed. "You never give up, do you?"

Marik responded immediately. "No. I don't." He grabbed the front of Bakura's shirt and pulled him on top of him.

-------------------------

At ten o clock Marik phoned Ishizu.

"Yes. It's Marik. Look, sis, do you think you might book an extra ticket for the ferry next Saturday?"

END OF CHAPTER TWELVE

A/N: I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Getting quite near the end now, keep reading!


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Don't own yu gi oh 

A/N: thanks to all reviewers, keep it up. The story is almost done, just a few more chapters to go now.

Ryou's Holiday Chapter 13

Bakura and Ryou always slept in on Sundays. They slept until 11 o clock, and when they did get up, they made a late breakfast and went up to eat it on the roof. Ryou enjoyed the view from the roof of their building, and Bakura enjoyed the expression on Ryou's face when it was raining. Ryou had always hated the rain. Thankfully, Egypt was, as Bakura knew, plenty sunny.

This particular Sunday morning did not pass as Bakura's Sundays normally did. He was awake by eight o clock, and he did not eat on the roof with Marik. He ate on the roof alone.

The view was as it always was. His smoked salmon bagel tasted nice, but somehow not as good as normal. He looked around at the fumy, musty Domino City. On the horizon of the early morning, he saw a pink sun coming over the top of several large industrial buildings on the outskirts of the city.

"Morning." Said an unnaturally irritating voice from behind him. Funny how Bakura had never really noticed how annoying Marik's voice was before now.

"How did you know I was up here?"

"Because you told me that you come up here when your thoughts get the best of you and you need some time alone." Responded Marik.

"Well since you know I need time alone - "

"I was just making sure you were all right."

"I am." Replied Bakura in his cold voice. "I'll see you downstairs."

Marik nodded. "All right." He left Bakura swiftly, leaving the roof door to slam shut.

Bakura sat down on the cold, harsh gravel of the roof. The pale sun was now rearing its head over the city, and was shining exuberantly, illuminating Bakura's perfectly ivory face.

----------------------------------------

That lunchtime, Marik made plans to have lunch with Ishizu and Yugi at the hotel restaurant. He had not seen Yugi since the incident at the game shop, and Ishizu had been in a strange mood all week. Perhaps Marik could get her mind off whatever was troubling her. He tried to remind himself, as he entered the restaurant that he truly ought not to care.

_I'm Marik. _He told himself. _I don't get deep feelings._

He greeted Yugi and Ishizu and they sat down for lunch. Yugi scanned the menu for candy, but to no avail. After Marik and Ishizu had ordered their matching dishes, and Yugi had ordered pizza and ice cream, they settled into conversation. Uncomfortable conversation, but conversation all the same.

"So….Yugi." Ishizu broke the silence. "I hear you have another tournament coming up. That'll be fun for you."

Yugi sighed. "It will not. Kaiba's taking part and he's already threatened to beat me, uh, wait a minute, let me just check, uh, seven million times."

"That's a joke right?"

"Exaggeration, but it might as well not be because that's what it feels like."

"Well." Ishizu's eyes lit up. "If you want me to talk to him about it, uh, that'd be OK."

Yugi and Marik looked at each other and raised their eyebrows. "Ishizu, you're sad." They said simultaneously.

"I'll just tell Joey to do it. If he's not being threatened too."

"Why would he be?" said Ishizu heatedly. "He's hardly a good enough duelist to stand a chance of beating Seto."

"Uh….right. Anyway, here's the bill." Said Marik, relieved to be granted the privilege of leaving this miscalculated lunch. He threw a couple of notes on the table, and ran out of the restaurant, praying to anyone listening that he never had to endure that again.

-----------------------------------------------

That evening, Bakura decided to step out for a walk. Marik offered to go with him, but Bakura declined. Marik honestly didn't know what was on Bakura's mind. Well, he hoped that he had an idea. An idea that was right, that is. Perhaps Bakura was confused. The good kind of confused.

Around twenty minutes after Bakura left, Marik heard the phone ring. He had been lying on the couch reading, so put his book down and stared at the phone. He had never had the phone ring when Bakura had not been here to answer himself. Perhaps it was the office supply company phoning to tell Bakura that he was crazy if he thought he could ever work there.

Marik walked over to the phone and slowly picked it up.

"Uh, Bakura's apartment."

"Is that you, Bakura?"

Marik's heart might very well have stopped beating right then and there. And his stomach certainly dropped about five inches.

"R-Ryou?"

"Yes. Who's this?"

"Um, its, er, Marik. Marik Ishtar."

"Oh!" Ryou responded happily in his pleasant British voice. "Of course, Yugi mentioned that you were coming to cheer Bakura up a bit. How are you?"

Marik was more flustered even than when he had tried to sell spoons. "Fine. I'm, uh, fine."

"Well good. And how is Bakura? I haven't spoken to him in a good while."

"He's…great." Was all that Marik managed to say. "He's just….great."

"And what about your sister? She was so nice to me at Battle City."

Marik stifled a laugh. "Fantastic."

"Well it sounds like you're all having a wonderful time. I just hope everyone will be happy to see me when I get back. It doesn't sound like you miss me too much!"

Marik bowed his head in shame. He was appreciative that Ryou could not see this action. "Don't be stupid. We all miss you. Especially Bakura."

"Does he? Oh, that is nice. Is Bakura there?"

"Uh, no, he's not. He's out."

"Do you know what time he'll be back?"

"Haven't a clue."

"Oh well. I'll ring a bit later."

"OK."

"Uh, Marik, just out of interest, why are you answering our phone? I mean, I didn't mean to sound rude, I just-was wondering why you're there and Bakura's…not. If you know what I mean. Are-are you staying with him?"

Marik panicked. "Um, um.." Yes or No? Lie or tell the truth? "Yes. I am." He figured this way would be easier than having to explain why he was there if he wasn't staying there.

"Oh. Um…"

"Don't worry, Ryou, I'm going the day you come back, so I won't cramp your style when you come back or anything." _Did I just use the phrase "cramp your style?" _Marik asked himself, slapping himself on the forehead.

"OK then." Replied Ryou. "I'll go then."

Ryou put down the phone without waiting for a reply from Marik.

Marik wandered back into the living room. He suddenly felt incredibly guilty. What had he done? Gone and fallen in love with someone who already a boyfriend? Pretended to himself that Bakura might through some stretch of the imagination feel the same way? Convinced himself that, when Ryou returned, there would be no Bakura here to greet him? Yes. That was what he had done. And it was not good.

END OF CHAPTER 13

A/N: OK, I think I'm sorta getting writers block. After all, there are only so many filler chapters you can write. And all this Marik angst is starting to drive even me up the wall. Damn, why did I have to have him stay for two whole weeks? Oh well. Something exciting can happen in the next chapter. Review please!


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own Yu Gi Oh. If I did it would be friggin' pitiful.

Warnings: Shonen ai

A/N: Thanks to reviewers, DragonLady22, Rannaty, kerryO, trace, As Silent As The Shadows, Rapturous Voice, ryou bakura, casmut. Keep it up:)

Ryou's Holiday chapter 14

Wednesday (three days to go)

The previous few days had passed uneventfully. Marik had been in his usual emotional turmoil, and he and Bakura had gotten into a routine of avoiding each other for the entire day and then meeting at around midnight to screw each other's brains out.

Not that Marik did not appreciate this arrangement (at least parts of it) but he was beginning to suspect that Bakura's sanity was starting to wear a little thin. He knew Bakura felt weak, something he couldn't stand, not to mention the toll that their emotionally stunted dysfunctional non-relationship was taking on him.

He had asked Ishizu to book an extra ticket on the ferry, true. But did he honestly expect Bakura to come with him? Marik wanted his happy ending, sure, but at what cost? It wasn't as if Ryou wasn't in the picture somehow. Marik didn't want to screw up what those two had. Assuming Ryou was the one Bakura really loved.

-------------------------------

"Are you coming or not?"

"Are you kidding? Marik, I don't love you. Get into your thick fucking skull."

Marik choked back tears, rather ineffectually. "Fine." He spluttered, running out onto the street. He was staining his shirt with blood…somehow. He stared, transfixed at his hands, before realizing he was on the roof of Bakura's building.

_How did I get here? _He asked himself, trying to shake the dizzy thoughts out of his head.

He looked down on the gravel beneath him. It was a long way down. There was no one down there. He was quite alone. He was all of a sudden aware that he was falling. Not falling, but more like….flying. This was good, it was comforting. He could not feel the breeze graze his cheeks, but he did feel light brushes on his face. Someone….

"Marik!"

"Ugh…."

"Marik, wake the fuck up before I slap you!"

"Wha…" Marik's eyes were glazed as he rubbed them and tried to puzzle out where exactly he was. He sat up sharply.

He was not falling. Or, indeed, flying. He had been, of course, dreaming. But the brushes on his face had, evidently, been quite real.

"Way to kill the mood, Kura." He mumbled. "I get it, but there's no need to threaten."

Bakura shrugged, his white hair falling gracefully past his shoulders as he lay staring at Marik. "I didn't do it because of that. You were writhing in your sleep. Tossing and turning."

"And?"

"Well, at first I thought you were having a rather pleasant dream about me. No such luck. You started looking more and more uncomfortable. So I woke you up." Bakura lay down, soon to be joined by Marik.

"So…you woke me up because you were worried about me?"

Bakura grinned. "Or, I just wanted an excuse to be able to do this….."

He ran his pale hand along Marik's arm and pulled him in for a kiss. Marik gladly reciprocated, lacing his fingers together with Bakura's and nuzzling his neck.

"Mmm.." mumbled Bakura incoherently.

Their make-out session got more intense and soon they ended up in the same position they had been for the past three nights. Well, maybe not quite the same position.

----------------------

The next morning, Marik was the first awake for the first time since he'd arrived. He went into the bathroom and washed. He was, the entire time, mentally scolding himself for being so dramatic. He didn't love him. No. Not at all. He could, if he tried, see this the way Bakura saw it – a brief fling to tide them over until Bakura's boyfriend returned and Marik left. He shrugged. Last night had been certainly enjoyable, and he'd got warmer feelings from Bakura than he had in a while. It had been….fun. Fun, rather than filled with regret and built up tension and frustration.

Marik made himself breakfast consisting of coco pops and milk, and sat watching the TV until Bakura came into the room, rubbing his tired eyes and sitting down next to Marik, absentmindedly putting his arm around him.

"Uh…morning, Kura?"

"Morning."

Marik was surprised. "Any particular reason for this display of affection? Or are you hoping for some morning time action?"

Bakura laughed, though not in the sinister way he usually did. "Perhaps."

"Well think again." Said Marik with a grin. "So what do you want to do today? I heard the neighbors have a new fichus, want to set it alight?"

"No." said Bakura. "Too easy."

"Well, there is that annoying dog on the second floor…."

Bakura raised his eyebrows. "I'm intrigued."

"Want to put it in the oven?"

Bakura grinned. "OK."

------------------------

Yugi was in despair. Two people he cared about were lovesick. The Ishtars weren't exactly his best friends, but they had helped him save the world. Credit where it's due.

So he hated to see them like this. Especially Marik. He didn't want to admit it, but he was going to be crushed beyond belief when he had to leave Bakura. Yugi smiled to himself. He had always secretly thought that there was some kind of understanding between Marik and Bakura (beyond that of simply partners in crime). Marik, even when still evil, had seemed to care about Bakura and had, at least, worked together with him to fight Marik's Yami.

Then again, he had felt the same about Bakura and Ryou. It had hardly been Shock of the Century when they got together mere weeks after Bakura got his own body. Bakura had protected Ryou during the Battle City tournament, evidently with good reason.

And now what? What should he do? Keep out of the way, he thought. It was only two days until Marik left. It was not Yugi's place to tell Bakura how Marik felt about him, no more than it was his job to tell Ryou what happened. He hoped Bakura would tell Ryou himself.

But, he couldn't dwell on it. Ishizu's situation was rather more pressing, as she was by no means in love with Seto Kaiba, but did seem to be a little infatuated with him. And Yugi did happen to know that Joey and Kaiba were going out for diner and a movie that night, and that Ishizu was planning something in the way of sabotage.

And he couldn't let that happen. Simply because Ishizu was going to embarrass herself beyond belief.

--------------------

"Setooooooooo!"

"What?"

"I'm bored." Joey made his best puppy dog expression.

"And? What do expect me to do about it? I'm working."

"Play with me."

Seto rolled his eyes. "What are you, a child?"

"Depends in what way you took that request." Joey grinned.

"Ugh. Not right now, mutt. I have to work. Besides, we're going out later."

Joey sighed. "I guess. What movie are we seeing?"

Seto looked exasperated. "You asked me this earlier, Wheeler."

Joey giggled childishly. "I know, but after I asked you I forgot to listen to the answer."

"Massacre of the Undead 6."

"Oh, but I missed number 5. I won't understand."

Seto ground his teeth. "Wheeler, all the first five involved were zombies coming to life and killing people. Do you really think the plot will be all that hard to follow?"

Joey looked sheepish. He was not exactly intuitive, but he could tell Seto was getting rather annoyed. "Mmmkay."

He bounded out of the room and went to play video games. Seto sighed. How did he end up so totally head over heels for such a loser?

------------------

Thursday night, around 8:00pm 

Blonde hair was tossed behind slim tanned shoulders as a female made her way to Pizza Hut. She was almost there. She giggled. She realized full well that this way unbelievably psychotic, but there it was. She had lost the last of her sanity when she fell for this guy.

She asked herself one last time what she was thinking as she entered the Hut. She ducked behind the buffet bar, peeking her head out to observe. Well, too late now. She had committed to the enterprise.

Yes, there they were. The blond mutt was sitting by the window, and the tall brunet was facing him. The blond was eating his pizza animatedly, not pausing to worry about foolish, unimportant things such as whether he had sauce on his face, or whether he was about to choke to death.

Ishizu scowled. How had Seto Kaiba fallen for this moron? She had considered his standards to be higher. Never mind. If this worked, she would need to worry about that anymore.

She began to get ready. She adjusted her heart-shaped, pink rimmed sunglasses, doubled checked her make-up, which was so over the top that she was barely recognizable as a human, let alone Ishizu Ishtar. She was wearing a blonde wig, and a red minidress. She felt like Mai Valentine on crack.

She approached their table, and readied herself. She had already decided who she was going to use. Because after all, which of them was more gullible?

She stopped directly in front of their table where they stared at her in stony silence.

"Who the hell are - "

Slap. She hit Seto Kaiba across the face with as much force as she could muster.

"What the fuck, you crazy bit - "

"Oh Seto!" she cried. "Why didn't you call me? We have one wild night and you never even thought of picking up the phone?" Her voice was perfection. Watching Mean Girls 17 times had paid off.

"I mean, I just can't believe it! You told me I was the only one!" she screamed, her voice cracking.

"What in the - "

"Don't bother to explain!" she cried melodramatically. "I don't need your _explanations_!"

With that, she flounced around, flung her "hair" over her shoulder and stormed out of Pizza Hut.

--------------------

_Two lovers entwined passed me by, and heaven knows I'm miserable now._

The evening had not been uneventful. Far from it. It had been everything that Marik had wanted merely that morning. Dramatic.

_Why do I give valuable time to people who don't care if I live or die?_

Damn, Marik wished they'd turn off the fucking music. It didn't help.

It had started out all right. They had, as they promised themselves, begun the day's festivities by setting fire to the neighbor's fichus. Which was more fun than anticipated, as they had almost set fire to the whole apartment.

_There were times when I could have murdered him._

And the dog. That had been a little bit of fun, too. Until the owner had caught them, that is. Perhaps they should have thought of using their own oven rather than his.

Marik's cheek became stained with a salty tear. He hated himself. Hated himself for feeling like this, for letting himself get so far, for crying. But even more than that he hated Bakura. How had he let this happen to him?

He had taken it too far. Robbery? And a jewellery store. Not just Seto Kaiba's house, but a jewellery store. Bakura had always been greedy, and neither had ever known true wealth. Bakura had convinced him it would be fun.

The woman came in. The white dress, the comfortable shoes. So friendly, inviting, the smile on her face. Marik leapt up.

"Would you please let me see him!" he cried.

And he had had to run. Security had evidently improved. Bakura took the lead, like he always did. Marik was just his shadow. The road was dark and slippery. And then it was just over.

_To die by your side….._

He ran into the glass-panelled room. Breaking down completely.

…_.is such a heavenly way to die._

Bakura had been hit by a car.

_Do you really think he'll pull through?_

_-------------------------_

END OF CHAPTER 14 

A/N: That was one was very strange. I tried out some things, don't know if it quite worked. But hey. Only two or three chapters left now.

Disclaimer/AN: All lyrics (italics) by The Smiths.

By the way, yes, Ishizu will be disposed of asap.


	15. Chapter 15

Disclaimer: I don't own Yu Gi Oh

Ryou's Holiday Chapter 15

Friday, 7:09 am

Marik was slumped by Bakura's hospital bed. He had been vainly attempting to keep awake for the past few hours, but to no avail. His tired body needed sleep. But he had to stay awake…for Bakura.

"Marik? Oh my God, what happened?"

The female voice awoke him with a start. "Marik!"

He turned to see Tea standing above him, with Yugi, Tristan and Joey in tow.

"Oh…hey, you guys. Glad you could come."

Tea looked tearful. "What happened to him, Marik?"

Marik sighed. "He was hit by a car."

"Oh, God!"

"I know." Marik had replayed the event in his mind a thousand times. Not again, he silently begged. Don't make me do it again.

"Is he going to be OK?"

"They think he'll be fine. He's unconscious, but he's stable. They're fairly sure he'll come to pretty soon. Later today, they said. So I'm gonna stay here with him."

Yugi took a seat next to Marik. "And are you OK, Marik?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine. Just in shock, that's all."

"How – how did it happen?"

Marik bowed his head. "We were stealing from a jewellery store. Bakura thought it would be fun. We got caught, and we had to run for it. Bakura went ahead, he wasn't looking where he was going, and he ran into the road and got hit."

"What about the driver?"

"He's fine, he wasn't speeding or drink driving, so he's not being charged. Nor is Bakura, for that matter, since the things he took were returned without damage. Plus I think they felt slightly bad about arresting someone who had just been hit by a car."

"Well, I hope he's OK. After all, Ryou's coming back tomorrow, and we don't want him to have to come back to a boyfriend who's laid up in a hospital bed."

"No. I think he'll be fine." Said Marik optimistically. "Thankfully, the car wasn't driving very fast. According to the doctors, there's no internal hemorrhaging. He's got a broken arm and three broken fingers, but they've fixed that already."

The rest of the party looked at Bakura, whose arm was indeed encased in plaster.

"Anyway, thanks for coming down." Said Marik monotonically. "I know you don't care much about him."

"That's not true." Said Yugi. "He may still be bad guy, but he's changed a good deal since Battle City. Ryou's influence, of course, but he is different. And there may be times when he hates us and we hate him, but he's a person. Plus, we wanted to make sure he wasn't seriously hurt. For Ryou's sake."

Marik was hardly taking in anything that was being said. He was now not only worrying about Bakura, but about Ryou's return. And his coincidental departure. What if Bakura was to wake up after he had left? He'd never see him again, in all likelihood. He'd never get the chance to say goodbye. He'd never get the chance to know if Bakura felt the same way about him as he did about Bakura. For now, more than ever, he was sure that he loved Bakura and wanted nothing more than to tell him so. He cared about what Bakura would say, of course he did. But nothing mattered more than Bakura waking up to see Marik again.

"Marik?" asked Yugi. "Are you OK?"

"What? Oh, yeah, I'm fine. You guys can feel free to go, there's no need for you to stay on my account, or anything."

"I'll stay." Said Yugi. "Joey, don't you have to see Kaiba about something?"

Joey looked puzzled. "Oh yeah! Whoops, I forgot. He is gonna be mad at me." Joey scurried out of the room.

"I'd better go, too." Said Tristan. "I promised Serenity I'd help her with something." He, too departed.

"Well, I'll stay with you." Said Tea. "No reason you guys should have to wait alone."

She drew up a chair and sat with the two seated boys.

"So, uh, Yugi, when exactly is Ryou coming back?"

"I think his flight gets in at half past two. When does your ferry leave?" he asked warily.

"Eleven twenty. So I'll be long gone when Ryou gets back, I guess." He said, looking shameful.

Tea frowned. "Is there something going on here that I don't know about?"

Yugi smiled warmly at the girl. "No, nothing, Tea. We're just…excited for Ryou's return. And it's a shame that Marik won't get to say hello."

Tea nodded. "Right."

The conversation tapered off after a few minutes, leaving the three sitting in uncomfortable silence for the next ten or so minutes. The tension relaxed, however, when each became lost in their own thoughts.

Yugi was wondering whether Bakura would wake up in time for Marik to say goodbye. He now understood Marik well enough to realize that was exactly what was going through his mind, so there was no need to bring it up. He hoped Bakura did. It would be very unfair if Marik were to leave and never see Bakura again. He was the closest thing Bakura had ever had to a real friend.

Tea was wondering what Yugi and Marik were hiding from her. She was generally useless at figuring these things out, so she decided not to bother to try.

Marik was thinking about Ishizu. He wondered if she had, indeed, attempted to steal Seto Kaiba from Joey. If she had, evidently, she had failed quite miserably. He laughed to himself at the thought of Ishizu trying to hit on someone. She simply wasn't that type of person.

After half an hour had passed, Yugi suggested that food was sensible. He himself was starving, and it was by this time almost nine o clock, making it the perfect time for breakfast.

"Why don't we go down to the food court?"

Tea looked tentative. "Hospital food is horrible." She complained.

"Well, there's a café across the street." Put in Marik. "We could go there."

"OK." Agreed Tea, and Yugi followed suit.

They made their way out of the hospital, to go and eat at the café.

------------------------------------

_Where in Ra's name am I? And why am I wearing a dress? _

Deep brown eyes opened hesitantly.

_Am I in the hospital? Damn, how bad was that accident? _Bakura rubbed his eyes, realizing he could only move one of his arms.

"Ow!" he cried, as he attempted to move his left arm, which was the one plastered. _I guess I broke it. _

He rubbed his head, trying vaguely to remember what had happened. He knew there had been an accident. He knew that he had been hit by something….a car. He remembered very little after that. What had he been doing? He thought hard. Yes…that was it. He and Marik had been…out. Doing something. But what? Wait…of course! They had been out robbing that store. And then he had run out into the road, and then it had happened. Bakura's head was throbbing. His arm was beginning to ache dully. His throat was raspy. Evidently any painkillers which had been administered to him were beginning to wear off. Oh well.

Bakura sat up (not a wise move), clutched his aching head, and looked around, squinting his eyes. There was no one in the room but him. _Oh that's nice. _He thought to himself. _They don't care about me enough to visit. _Not that he cared. At all. After all if it had been anyone else, he certainly wouldn't have troubled to visit.

He shrugged his shoulders and lay back down. He hadn't a clue what day it was, let alone the time. His watch had been shattered in the accident and there was no clock in the room. He hoped it was not too late. He suddenly realized Ryou might be back. And…..and Marik might be gone. No. Marik couldn't be gone. But…if he was still in Domino, where was he?

And if Ryou was back, wouldn't he be here? Not if he hadn't been told yet. Perhaps they didn't want to worry him.

Bakura tossed in his bed. He was worried. Where the fuck was everyone?

"Bakura!" someone cried. Bakura twisted around to see who it was. Relief flooded through him as he saw Marik.

"Hey, Marik…" he said uncertainly as Marik flung his arms around Bakura's neck and hugged him tightly.

"I was so fucking worried, you stupid tomb robber. Don't you ever do that again."

"I wont if you promise to get off me, you're choking me." Said Bakura jovially.

"Sorry, but you had us all worried, Bakura." Interjected Tea.

"Really? Even you, Gardner?" asked Bakura.

"Well, yes." She said, the colour rising to her cheeks. "We weren't just worried for you, you know. For-for Ryou too. Because he's coming back tomorrow."

Bakura frowned. "That would make it Friday?"

"Yep."

"Huh. So, really, I was only out overnight."

"Yes." Said Marik. "The accident wasn't as serious as it could have been. The driver was going quite slowly."

"Oh…so it was all my fault."

"Yep." Said Marik, smiling. "You are stupid sometimes, Bakura. Luckily the store isn't pressing charges."

"Store?"

"The store you convinced me it would be fun to rob."

"Oh…that store."

"Yes, that store." Said Marik fondly.

Tea got up. "I'll go fetch the nurse and tell her you're up, shall I?"

"Thanks Tea." Said Marik.

"I'll go with you." Said Yugi quickly.

Marik grinned. "Thanks Yugi."

When the two had left, Marik proceeded to sit down next to Bakura.

"So, how are you feeling?"

"Not so good. My head hurts like a bitch, and my arm kills as well. Where the fuck is the morphine?"

Marik laughed. "I'm sure the nurse will help you out, Bakura."

"When can I get out of this place? Hospitals creep me out." Said Bakura sincerely.

"Well, they say they want to keep you overnight for observation. But hopefully if you're OK, you should be able to get out of here tomorrow."

"In-in time for Ryou to come back?"

Marik nodded. "I should think so."

---------------------------------------------

The rest of the day passed without event. Marik remained by Bakura's side, playing cards, bringing him his terrible hospital food, talking with him. Marik was actually enjoying himself. Bakura seemed to be different. He seemed to have a weight lifted off his shoulders. Almost as if…as if the accident had somehow given him clarity, where before he had doubt. He was being almost _nice _to Marik. He was laughing, and not threatening to kill anyone. And most importantly, he didn't show any signs of being depressed or ansgty. Marik was over-familiar with both of these, and was glad to say neither he now Bakura felt like that on that sunny Friday.

In fact, Bakura only threatened one person with a knife, a young nurse who seemed to frighten easily, and had made the foolish mistake of telling Marik that visiting hours were over. Bakura managed to scare her into allowing Marik to stay with him for the rest of the night.

When the day was out, Marik slumped back in his chair, ready for sleep. Bakura, however, was having none of it. He pulled Marik onto his own hospital bed, with the excuse that "sleeping in a chair is bad for the neck."

Marik fell asleep with a smile on his face for the first time in two weeks.

END OF CHAPTER 15

A/N: there are definitely two chapters left now. The next will be posted on Sunday or thereabouts, and the final chapter sometime next week. They will both be fairly short chapter, but hey. Review please!


	16. Chapter 16

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Gi Oh 

A/N: Sorry I haven't updated in a while, I hope you haven't all given up on this fic, as it's almost finished. This chapter and one more after that.

Ryou's Holiday chapter 16

On Saturday morning, Bakura and Marik, who had spent the night together in the hospital bed, were awoken by the hospital nurse, who was proclaiming that it was time to for Bakura to be checked out.

"Oh, but I like being in hospital." He complained. "People assume because you've had an accident you deserve sympathy and bring you gifts." He grinned.

She rolled her eyes. "None of us have any illusions about you, Mr. Bakura. Now it's time for you to get yourself checked out, you've sustained no permanent damage and we're sure you don't have a concussion." She said firmly.

"And my arm?" he asked.

"It's fractured, but when you come back in three weeks for a check up, the doctor will tell you more."

Marik stirred next to Bakura.

"Uh…Marik." Hissed Bakura. "Wake up."

Marik mumbled that he didn't want to, and planted his arms firmly around Bakura's torso and clung on, unwilling to let go.

The nurse raised her eyebrows. "I'm sure this is none of my business, but don't you have a boyfriend?"

Bakura glared at her. "You're right, it is none of your business."

She sighed. "Fine. Come to the front desk when you're ready. Here are your clothes." She placed them on the bed, and exited the room, leaving Bakura alone with Marik.

"Would you wake up, baka!" he cried, smacking Marik hard on the head.

"Ow…sorry, Kura. I didn't realize."

"As if." Snapped Bakura. Do you make it your mission to embarrass me 24/7?"

Marik grinned toothily at Bakura. Today he was leaving for Egypt, he wasn't going to waste the few hours he had left by arguing with Bakura.

"What time is it?" he asked.

Bakura glanced at the clock. "Twenty past ten."

"What? You have to be joking. My ferry leaves in, like, an hour, and I'm nowhere near ready!"

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Well get off me then and we can go."

The two checked out of the hospital at half past ten, and made their way to Yugi's, where Marik was determined to say goodbye.

"Oh, Marik, we're going to miss you!" cried Tea. "Do you promise to visit?"

"Yes, Tea, I promise to visit." Said Marik.

"Do you swear?"

"Yes." He said aloud. Inside his head, he was vehemently contradicting this. He had no intention of ever returning. After all, he was going to tell Bakura that he loved him before his departure. He had this feeling that if he ever came back the situation would be, to say the least of it, a little awkward.

Yugi threw his arms around Marik's neck, which Tea, Joey, and Tristan (yes, the entire friendship crew) took as a sign that they could join in. The group hug was cut short by Bakura's not-so-subtle hints that he and Marik needed to leave if he wanted time to pack his stuff.

They departed the game shop, with Yugi and the gang waving goodbye from the door.

He and Marik started laughing the moment they entered the car.

"And that's four very good reasons never to return." Said Bakura.

"You said it." Agreed Marik.

"So where do you want to go? Straight back to the apartment, I suppose?"

"Well…" began Marik uncertainly. "I-I wouldn't mind going back to the pier. You know, just something to remember the trip by."

Bakura sighed. Marik was hopelessly sentimental. But if the boy wanted to go to the pier, Bakura wasn't going to object.

They pulled up. The sun was high in the sky, and the sea was glistening beautifully. The crisp morning air was chilly, but somehow pleasant at the same time. Bakura and Marik sat down on the pier, and looked out into the sparkling waters of Domino harbor. Bakura put an arm around Marik's shoulder, sensing that he was cold. Marik leaned into Bakura's touch tentatively.

"Bakura? Can I ask you something?"

"Ruin the mood, why don't you?" Said Bakura, with mock upset.

"Seriously. Bakura…are you going to tell Ryou about this?"

"About what?" asked Bakura in the most irritating fashion.

"Bakura! You know what."

Bakura seemed to tense. He did not answer for several moments. "I don't know. I haven't decided yet."

Marik did not know how to interpret these words.

They sat together for five or six minutes, but eventually were interrupted by Bakura taking note of the time on his watch, which was, amazingly enough, still intact.

"We should go back to the apartment. Get your stuff. Don't want you to miss your boat." He said stiffly.

Marik sighed. "Yeah, you're right. You know, I've been missing Egypt, wanting to leave for a few days, but now, I kinda wish I had one more day."

Bakura nodded. "I know what you mean."

--------------------------------------------

"Is that the last of it?" Bakura called.

"Yep." Said Marik, in as cheery a tone as he could force. "That's everything."

"Well. I suppose you'd better go."

"Yeah." Responded Marik dully.

"You don't want me to drive you, do you?"

Marik shook his head. "No, I'm fine. I've got a cab waiting downstairs."

"So…" Bakura trailed off, not knowing what to say.

"Yeah. This is it, I guess. I mean, unless I visit."

Bakura shook his head at Marik. "You're not coming back, Marik. I know you're not."

"I – I guess you're right. I'm not."

Bakura pulled Marik into a hug, squeezing him so that he could barely breathe.

"Uh…Kura. You're crushing my lungs." He choked out.

"Sorry. But since we're never going to see each other again…"

"Forget it." Said Marik with a forced smile, tears beginning to sting the corners of his eyes. "We're not doing the big emotional goodbye thing. That's not us, right?"

"Right." Agreed Bakura in his cold tone.

Marik stood there for a further moment of awkward silence, before turning and approaching the door. "Bye then." He said, opening the door.

Bakura looked down. "Bye." He mumbled, as Marik shut the door behind him. He was gone.

He had barely been gone thirty seconds when Bakura was distracted by the phone ringing.

"Hello? Yes, this is Bakura. Uh huh. Yeah, I do….What? Are you fucking joking? No?…Uh, right. Yeah. See you Monday." He replaced the receiver, utterly confused. He had to tell Marik about this.

He flung the door open, prepared to run after Marik. But he didn't need to. Marik was standing right outside the door.

"Marik? What are you still doing here?"

Marik gulped. There's something I need to tell you."

Bakura laughed. "There's something I need to tell you too. As of Monday, I am officially an office supply salesman."

"What?"

"I got that job."

"Are you kidding? After what you said in that interview?"

Bakura nodded. "I think the most likely explanation is that I was the only person who applied for the job."

Marik nodded. "That's probably true."

"So what did you want to tell me?"

"Oh, just that I love you. And that I want you to come with me. That's all."

Bakura stared uncomprehendingly at Marik. "Don't joke like that, Marik. It's not funny."

"I know that. Good thing I'm not joking, then."

With this, Marik pulled Bakura into a searing kiss the likes of which Bakura was sure he had never had with Ryou. He pulled away, still unable to digest what Marik what saying to him.

"Marik…what?"

"Just think about it, Bakura. I love you. Please don't just let me leave."

Bakura shook his head. "Don't do this to me, Marik."

Marik grabbed his arms as Bakura began to walk backwards. "Bakura. It's easy. Just grab some stuff. And come. Come with me. Please."

Bakura swallowed, a lump rising in his throat. "No. No, I can't, Ryou, Ryou's coming."

"Forget it. Forget everything."

Bakura broke free. "No. I…I just can't. It's just too hard. I'm sorry, Marik. Please, just leave." He said finally.

He shut the door, leaving Marik standing outside, broken hearted.

-------------------------------------------

Bakura sat down. It was over. He couldn't help but feel…empty. Why? Why did it have to end like that? He was sure that it was not meant to end to end like that between him and Marik. But…how? How could he just up and leave? It was so…spontaneous. Crazy. Irrational. Everything that Bakura was. But he couldn't leave Ryou. He loved Ryou. Didn't he? He wasn't even sure anymore.

He sat for only a few minutes, thinking. Yes. He loved him. He loved…_him. _Yes. He had made up his mind. It wasn't meant to end like this. He had to go after Marik.

END OF CHAPTER 16

A/N: Next chapter - last chapter. BTW, apologies to those who want Bakura to end up with a particular person, and he doesn't. I can't have him choose both. Sorry!


	17. Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Don't own Yu Gi Oh 

A/N: Last chapter…don't hurt me…or I set Itachi on you…you see why…

Ryou's Holiday chapter 17

Bakura was running. He was running as fast as his lithe little tomb robber legs would carry him. He knew exactly what he was going to say to Marik. And now, better than ever, he knew exactly where his heart lay.

He turned the corners of the streets of Domino, desperately trying to figure out the quickest way to the pier. He looked at his watch. 11:24. Six minutes until Marik's ferry left. He had time. He still had time.

A car, a motorbike, even a child were not going to get in his way. He nimbly avoided the car (this time) and pushed the child out of the way. No time for scruples. Not that he would have them anyway.

He was almost completely out of breath by the time he reached the pier. He could see the ferry, still in the bay. He pushed his way past the other passengers, and was only stopped by the ticket inspector.

"Excuse me, sir, you can't go past without a ticket." He said.

Bakura growled at him. "I don't give a fuck, move out of the way now. There's someone on the ferry that I need to see."

The ticket inspector smiled at him in a smarmy way that Bakura disliked intensely. "I'm sorry, sir. You cannot get on the boat."

Bakura hissed, and shoved the man as hard as he could. "Marik!" he screamed. "Marik, get out here!"

He waited only a few moments before Marik re-emerged from the ferry. His eyes widened, seemingly in genuine surprise to see Bakura there.

"Marik, come down here, now!" barked Bakura. "I have something I want to say."

Marik nodded, and ran out of the ferry and on to the shore. Bakura pulled him out of earshot of the other passengers.

"Bakura, what is it?"

Bakura was silent. So much for knowing what he was going to say. He did know, he just didn't think he could bring himself to say it.

"Bakura! I'm going to miss my ferry, now would you spit it out, please?" said Marik, irritated.

"I just wanted to say. I'm sorry, Marik. I'm sorry for all I put you through over the last week. I never…I never meant for you to fall in love with me. I never thought you would."

"Is that it?" asked Marik, not softening to Bakura's words.

"No. Marik, I didn't want to believe you when you asked me to come with you. I had been struggling with myself for days, trying to choose between you and Ryou."

Marik, this time, couldn't hide his shock. "You – you were?"

"Yes. And when you had gone, I imagined what it would be like, going with you, and never seeing Ryou again. And couldn't. I'm sorry, Marik, but I realized, when you had gone, that I truly love Ryou with all my heart. But that doesn't mean that I want to stop being your friend. You're the only person I've ever met who would go with me to rob Kaiba, who would hole up with me in a mausoleum for two days, who would terrorize children at a theme park. You're my only friend, Marik, and I don't want you to go. At least, I want you to visit. But more than anything, I don't want this trip to end how it did back at the apartment. I can't leave it like that, not with you, Marik."

This display of emotion from Bakura could not remain unheard by Marik. "Do you really mean all that, Bakura?"

"Of course."

"So you really came all the way down here just to tell me that?"

Bakura sighed. "Yeah. I don't want to never see you again. And I don't want to leave things uncomfortable with us. It's not fair to either of us."

Marik considered. "Bakura, my ferry leaves in thirty seconds. I don't know what to say to you at all."

"Say you'll stay here. Yugi and the friendship crew would certainly appreciate it."

Marik stifled a laugh. "Don't know if Kaiba would be quite as appreciative."

Bakura laughed in concurrence. "Perhaps not. So?"

Marik shook his head. "Sorry, Kura. I'm glad you came down to tell me what I mean to you, and all, but I need to go back to Egypt. Need time, you know, to clear my head, forget about the whole "I love you" thing. That doesn't mean I won't get over you. I will. I just need a few months. Besides, I can't live here. Do you really think I could face Ryou? Or even Yugi?"

Bakura looked down. "I guess not. So you're gonna go?"

Marik nodded. "I have to. But, now that you've cleared the air once and for all with us, I don't see why I shouldn't visit."

Bakura brightened at this. "Really? You would?"

Marik nodded. "Of course. You'll always be my best friend, Bakura, you know that. But next time I visit, make sure Ryou's here, OK? Don't want anything like this happening again." He said with a smile.

"Sure. Oh, look, Ishizu's calling you."

She was indeed barking orders at Marik from the side of the boat. "Marik! Get your ass on this ferry right now! I don't fucking need this! You want me to leave you here?" She turned to the waiter. "Barman! Whisky sour, and make it snappy!"

Marik turned back to Bakura, barely containing his laughter. "She's just bitter because Seto Kaiba told her where to go."

Bakura laughed. "I guess you better go."

Marik nodded, and turned towards the boat. "I'll see you in a few months, Kura."

Bakura smiled. "You better. Or I'll have something to say about it."

Marik laughed. "Wish Kaiba and Joey the best for me, OK? And be nice to the guys! Oh, and Kura?"

"Yeah?"

"Don't rob Kaiba. That's a task that should only be done with your best friend. Got it?" he asked, as he stepped on to the ferry.

Bakura nodded, and with that Marik proceeded in to the confines of the boat, and out of Bakura's life. At least, for a few months.

"Got it…" mumbled Bakura wistfully.

----------------------------------------------------

It was 2:00pm. And time to collect Ryou from the airport. Bakura sighed, wondering if Ryou was going to be as cold to him as he had been when he had left two weeks ago. What if Ryou had changed in Egypt? What if Bakura had made the wrong choice? Only time would tell.

Bakura parked outside Domino Airport, and went to wait outside Ryou's gate, 17A. When who should turn up, but Yugi.

"Yugi!" Bakura barked. "What are you doing here?"

Yugi gave Bakura a cold look. "I'm here to greet Ryou. What are you doing here?"

Bakura narrowed his eyes at Yugi.

"So." Continued Yugi. "Have you decided whether or not to tell Ryou about your little escapade with Marik?"

Bakura nodded. "I'm not telling him."

"And why not?"

"Because." Snapped Bakura. "I never loved Marik. What happened with him has nothing to do with the way I feel about Ryou, and I don't see why Ryou should be worried by something that means absolutely nothing, and has no bearing on our relationship."

"So you're just going to pretend that everything's the same?" asked Yugi incredulously.

"That's where you're wrong, Yugi. Everything is the same…" said Bakura distantly.

They stood in silence for five more minutes, before the appearance of someone with white, fluffy hair, with an "I heart Cairo" T-shirt, a goofy smile on his face, and about ten pieces of hand luggage distracted them. Ryou was back.

Bakura's heart practically burst at the sight of him. "Ryou!" he cried, running up to the boy and making him drop half his hand luggage. "You're back!"

Ryou returned Bakura's hug with just as much ardour. "Oh, Bakura. I missed you so much. Did you miss me?"

Bakura sighed in relief and happiness. "Like you wouldn't even believe, Ryou."

Ryou smiled, and kissed Bakura. The kiss was warm and friendly, but still held a hint of passion that Bakura could not remember ever having with him before.

"Bakura, I'm sorry I was cold to you when I left," began Ryou, tears already forming in his eyes. "I never meant to be like that, I just didn't want to say goodbye."

Bakura shook his head at the boy. "Ryou! You never had to. You were always going to come back."

Ryou laughed. "I know. You're right. I'm just too sensitive. Like you always say, Bakura."

Bakura rolled his eyes. "Lately I've started to think the same thing of myself."

Ryou smiled and hugged Bakura once more.

Yugi, upon surveying this scene, wondered if everything was going to be the same. And if it wasn't, was it going to be OK? Would Bakura and Ryou really be able to carry on like before? Would Bakura really be able to carry on as though what had happened was no big deal?

"Here, I'll take your luggage to the car, Ryou. I'm parked just outside." Bakura went to collect Ryou's stuff from baggage claim.

Yugi looked at Ryou, unsure of what to say. "Welcome back, Ryou. Did you have fun in Egypt?"

Ryou gave a devilish giggle quite uncharacteristic of him. "I sure did." He grinned. "I got with this really cute guy."

Yugi was shocked. "You did what?"

Ryou shrugged. "What's the problem? It's no big deal." He giggled again. "Don't tell Bakura!"

And with that, Ryou joined Bakura outside at the car. Yugi looked on in amazement, suddenly realizing something. It _wasn't _a big deal. Ryou and Bakura loved each other, and that was that. Seeing Bakura and Ryou outside together, laughing with each other, hearing Bakura recall the story of his disastrous interview, and Ryou tell Bakura about his adventures in Egypt. Yugi smiled, satisfied, to himself. Everything really was going to be OK.

THE END

A/N: (Win dodges projectiles and fruit) I'm sorry! I know some of you wanted Marik to end up with Bakura, but I just couldn't do it! I just thought the end would be so cheesy and predictable (which it might have been anyway)! I apologize to all who wanted Bakura to end up with Marik. Review anyway? (grins childishly).

Next fic:YamixYugi


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